Journey of a Painting
Impressionism is one of the most universally loved styles of paintings. In fact, whenever we see an impressionist painting hanging in a museum, we take a step back, we squint our eyes and say, “ How the hell did (s)he paint this?”. More often than not, this is accepted as a rhetorical question and we never really get to know what goes behind a painting. Truth be told, in my limited research I have yet to learn how Monet could get a fuzzy, foggy obscure yet defined-enough effect in his paintings so masterfully (if anyone knows, please comment here). I almost wish there was a video of Monet painting an early morning misty landscape. However, the lack of knowledge shouldn’t stop anyone from experimenting and exploring. So I took a shot at making an original impressionist style painting. In this blog, I am going to take you through the process I followed, the sittings I had and how the painting looked at different stages of the process.
Secrecy
Secrecy in the art world is a well known phenomenon. Artists never wanted to reveal their unique processes, the processes they had developed through years of hard work and experimentation. Of course they didn’t want to just give away the secrets. It is kind of like protecting your intellectual property. However, we do have a lot to learn from the processes of great masters. If an art historian can reveal some of the secrets to us, it not only demystifies the craft but it also instills a belief that “I can also do it”. David Hockney’s book “Secret knowledge” is a must read in which he shares how many artists were able to achieve photo realism using the help of optical lenses, much before the “camera” was supposedly “invented”. Obviously it was never written down or made common knowledge, but there are enough evidences to indicate that artists were using technology — an arrangement of lenses and mirrors — to project real life views as an image onto their canvases. Reading the book really opened my eyes to how we deify the great masters and that really stops us from questioning and learning.
So in this blog, I am sharing some of my secrets with the hope of inspiring beginners and also to invite critique from experts.
The flowers in my backyard started blooming last spring and I sat outside to capture the evening light, with the sun starting to set to the left. The sunlight seeps through the leaves and through the cracks in the fence.
After adding the dramatic skies, I started concentrating on the trees at the end of the pathway. The light falling at an angle from the left side creates a sense of volume, which was very important to capture.
The flat concrete pathway seemed a little boring, so I starting adding a cobbled effect with flat brush strokes using blue for the shadows and yellow for the scattered light.
I resorted to moving inside and using a photo as reference while adding some definition to the wall, the roof and the window on the right. Also notice how the patch of light near the tree becomes progressively apparent.
As I started layering on the sunlight patches, I realized that the sky needs to be changed as well and it needs to be lighter towards the left to indicate the position of the sun. It is very important to define a specific source of light in any painting.
I started using very thin layers of paint to achieve the texture of the window net. Also I suddenly felt that the walls look empty, so I included the wall-pipe and the meter box as well. That’s one of the biggest advantages of the oil medium — being able to modify the painting whenever you want!
Notice how I never used black for any of the shadows and heavily relied on blues, reds and greens.
This used to be my setup. I always preferred working on the painting in the morning to be able to perceive the true colors. But it was fun to notice how different the painting looked at night versus in the morning.
The tree on the left was quite challenging but of utmost importance. The light seeping through the skrawny branches ties the whole painting together. It presents all the cues needed for the viewer to put together the story of the painting.
The wire dangling from the corner of the garden to the house, guides the eye in making depth judgements.
To Conclude…
I took a lot of time to paint this one; probably around 3 months. Obviously I didn’t work at it tirelessly for three months. I took my own sweet time. That way I was able to observe the painting everyday and come up with ideas intuitively. Throughout the process, I had to remind myself to not be scared — it is my canvas and nothing bad can happen. So I kept on adding a layer of paint at a time and experimenting with the techniques. I found a lot of joy in the slowly bringing out the light and shadow juxtapositions.
For anyone new to the world of oil paintings, I would just say don’t be scared and take your time. Also, good quality paint helps ;) Happy painting!
