Plein Air Painting: Turner

Showing posts with label Turner. Show all posts

New York Impressions - Studies and Miniatures
Saturday, May 27, 2017

Plein air painting requires from the artist study and discipline.
Capturing light, color and local atmosphere inside a short frame of time demands a keen sense of observation and simplification. These are only acquired with practice.
It is indeed quite different from painting in the studio under a controlled environment.

Time is always a concern, light changes and atmospheric conditions can be a challenge.In fact, the interaction with the surroundings plays an integral part and lends a special character to the painting result.

Hence, small and medium are the formats of choice when painting outdoors.

I'm always researching on ideas to increase portabillity of my painting gear in oil, pastel and watercolor. I have pochade boxes and easels on several sizes according to the work I intend to produce at the moment.

Recently I've found out that I can reduce even more my pochade box.Up to now my smaller one was the Julian Paris Thumb box. This time I'm experimenting with mint tins, I've been using it for my studies on this trip to New York achieving interesting results.

Brooklyn Heights Promenade
Sandra Nunes
New York Impressions

Studies or Miniatures?

Studies are preliminary works, generally in a small scale when the artist deals with his ideas on color notations, composition, drawing and other aspects of a finished painting before compromising with a larger work.

We have amazing exemples of by the Great Masters posted here on this blog some of them I had the pleasure of studying up close and personal like Joaquin Sorolla, Constable, Turner...

Joaquin Sorolla
Small studies
Museo Sorolla

Turner
Study of clouds

Joaquin Sorolla
Study of Fiherwomen

On the other hand, Miniature Paintings are works, very detailed with their origins in illuminations and it can be traced back to ancient Egyptian manuscripts. Generally with this technique, the artist uses magnifying glass and really tiny brushes to achieve very intricate detailed images. In fact Miniature is a genre of painting and it is not necessarily small.

I strive to follow the way paved by the great masters, and I intend to continue experimenting with the "mini pochade tin"(?) on my plein air studies.

Some of these works will be developed on a larger scale, and they will be available for you.
In case you are interested, please email-me.

This afternoon I stopped at Union Square and captured the iconic New York yellow taxi out of a mint tin :

New York Yellow Cab
Sandra Nunes
Plein Air Painting
New York Impressions

Posted bySandra Nunes at 8:09 PM 0 comments

Labels: altoids painting, Constable, impressionism, Julia paris thumb box, mint tin, new york, outdoor painter, paint box, plein air painting, pochade, Sandra Nunes, Sorolla, Turner, union square, urban landcape, yellow cab

Plein Air Painting - Europe 2016 - London Part II
Wednesday, July 6, 2016

Continuing from my last post, ( you can read it here) I´ll write now about my reencounter with another Great Master:
John Constable

Nature and Nostalgia
Constable took a long time to achieve recognition. While his work was just as radical as Turner's, it shows none of the latter's constant searching for new subjects. He admired earlier Dutch painters as "a stay at home people, hence, their originality" His work was located in familiar territory beginning with his native Stour Valley between Suffolk and Essex.

Salisbury Cathedral from river Avon, 1820
oil on canvas
John Constable

Some of Constable sketches record individual motifs that reappear in finished paintings while others, provided the basis for entire compositions.

Cloud study
John Constable

pochade study
John Constable

From the 1780 s British and French painters began increasingly to make small scale oil sketches out of doors. These sought to capture subtle effects or light and atmosphere, and were not usually intended as finished works of art, John Constable was the great English Master of this medium. Being in a gallery surrounded by all that little gems was a dream come true!

Sandra Nunes at
Constable Gallery of studies
Victoria and Albert Museum - London

John Constable

He based his art on study from Nature, making drawings and small oil sketches outdoors working direct from the motif. His subjects were chosen from personal meanings or associations. Even early pictures are imbued with sentimental memory. Nostalgia dominated his later work, reflecting his faith in the continuity of rural life in an age of change

John Constable

Cloud study
John Constable

The largest surviving group of these studies, over ninety works, was given to Victoria & Albert Museum by the artist's daughter. They shed unique light on Constable's working practice and are remarkable for their spontaneity and accuracy.
.......................

Time to rest the eye and do my "homework":

In a completely different surrounding than Constable's I went to capture the light and atmosphere of a wet day in London.
When I got to the site, it was only cloudy, but before I could start my work the rain came down. Fortunately there was a bus stop close by and I had shelter for the painting session.
This was one of that experiences that we never forget!

At the bus stop
Euston Road

Sandra Nunes
Plein air painting - Euston Road
London

To be continued...
Next post, an amazing exhibition in the National Portrait Gallery: "Russia and the Arts"

Posted bySandra Nunes at 7:42 PM 0 comments

Labels: Constable, contemporary landscape painting, Euston, impressionism, London, oil on canvas, oil sketches, plein air painting, pochade box, rainy day painting, Sandra Nunes, Turner, Victoria and Albert Museum

Plein Air Painting - Europe 2016 - London Part I
Saturday, July 2, 2016

I´m back from Europe, as usual I'm late with my posts here and as usual greatly inspired after an overdose of viewing great Art, I feel like painting 24 hours a day!

I´ll try to show here some highlights of these amazing days.

London

Meeting Sargent...

Meeting Sargent - Tate Britain Gallery

While it is wonderful to see great masterpieces up close and personal , we can never lose the opportunity to learn from the studies and the unfinished works...

Study for Madame Gatreaux
J. S. Sargent

Turner

Turner's many studies of Nature forms and fleeting effects convey the artist's inquisitive mind and his constant search for the pictorial possibilities in the world around him. Spanning fifty one years of his life, they served as valuable reference material in the composition and finished works.

Trees and Skies
J.W. Turner

Goring Mill and Church - JW. Turner
There´s no preliminary drawing in this unfinished work,
the sky is sufficiently developed o show that the weather
is fine and the war clouds suggest afternoon...

Their function as studies allowed for greater freedom to experiment with format, medium and technique. Turner´s focus varies from the single motif to wider views of the landscape, encompassing foliage, mountains, rivers, skies and the sea which exerted a particular fascination for him later in his life.

J. W. Turner

Turner drew prolifically in sketchbooks of various shapes and sizes, some of which(about 300!) are now held at Tate. In 1801 he used this small sketchbook during hs tour in Scotland, which included an exploration on the Highlands. This sketchbook below is open at studies completed in guache, a more opaque medium than watercolor, giving solidity to the mountain form.

Turner's Sketchbook

Time to rest the eyes and do my "homework":

Sandra Nunes
Sketching in watercolor - Hyde Park

To be continued in the next post with another Great Master: Constable!

Posted bySandra Nunes at 8:10 AM 0 comments

Labels: Constable, John Singer Sargent, landscape painting, London, madame gatreaux, oil painting, plein air painting, pochade, Sandra Nunes, sketchbook, Tate Gallery, Turner