Impressionistic Photos – experiments
I want to share a happy accident I stumbled upon this week that brings my two artistic focuses (painting and photography) together. I was out taking photos but when I got the images out of the camera I saw impressionistic paintings.
I was out taking photos at night (well early evening but dark enough in January at this latitude). I generally do all of my photography handheld which means I will set my camera (Nikon D80) at its highest ISO rating and hold my breath (literally and figuratively) to get an image without too much camera shake blur. I am also using vibration reduction lenses which help. Sometimes this works and I get reasonably clear (if grainy) photos. Sometimes I get results which I wouldn’t share as a photograph but are just fine for using as a photo reference for a painting.
The highest ISO speed rating on the D80 is 1600 so that is typically what I’ve used. There are however some higher setting – basically a 0.3, 0.7 and one full stop faster (i.e. effectively ISO 3200. I haven’t used these higher setting very often figuring the quality just wouldn’t be there – too grainy!
Impressionistic Photo
The photo didn’t come out exactly like that – the original image was this:
original photo
You can see I did increase the brightness and saturation a bit (using Capture NX2) but I did not have to use any Photoshop-like processing to get an “Impressionist painting effect”. I thought that was pretty cool. While a little bit of grain seemed to read as a bad photo, a lot gives it a worthwhile effect. I still need to print this out and see whether it is something I could consider framing and displaying – or whether it will remain as a reference for a painting.
Here is a second similar image:
Impressionist Photo 2
Again , pretty grainy with very soft edges but… well I like something about it. Here is the original, unaltered image:
original photo 2
This one was cropped a bit, as well as having the saturation and overall brightness adjusted. Of course the “Impressionistic Photo” also looks more grainy just because it is blown up to a greater degree in this blog post.
Curiously, over the last few days I have tried to re-create this effect with some high-film-speed-setting photos, but I’ve not been able to duplicate the look and feel to my satisfaction. I will however continue to experiment and share my discoveries and results.
Abstract Photos from a Rainy January Day
Today (2010/1/26) was an unusual January day in that it rained. That the rain froze on the sidewalks made the walking treacherous but the wet and or icy surfaces and a lot of recent snow made for some interesting abstract photos.
Abstract 110126-82
Abstract 110126-84
Abstract 110126-88
Abstract 110126-92
Abstract 110126-99 (Red Light)
Abstract 110126-103
Abstract 110126-94
Abstract 110126-108
Abstract 110126-124
Tom Thomson – Snow
In an earlier post I pointed readers to some of my favorite snow paintings by the Canadian Group of Seven. I did not include there any of the paintings by the not-quite-a-Group-of-Seven-member Tom Thomson. You might say I was saving the best for last. Tom Thomson is my favorite and certainly was a master of the rugged Canadian landscape in all seasons. Although he would typically spend his winters working in his studio in Toronto, Thomson certainly encountered and painted snow and ice in the early spring and late fall.
As I had done with the Group of Seven snow paintings, I studied prints of Thomson’s works to better understand the values he used for snow and the relative difference between snow in the sun versus in the shade. I used my value scale comparator with a value 1 being associated with pure white and a 9 for black. I observed a fair bit of variation in Thomson’s paintings with snow in sun appearing to be anywhere from a 2 to a 5 but 3 was the most common sunny snow value. When the snow was in the shade the value usually dipped a couple of points. Although not scientific, with my eye I estimated the shady snow in Thomson’s paintings to rand from 5 to 8 with 5.5 being the most common.
First Snow in Autumn is a very snowy painting with clear areas in sun and shade. By my estimate this one of the highest values for sunlit snow. The almost white color I would estimate to be a value 2 while the light blue shadows are about a 5.5. Early Snow from the Winnipeg Art Gallery although darker in value overall with a 5 in the sun and 7 in the shadows still reads believably as a snowy winter scene. Probably a textbook example of values for snow is in Thomson’s Woods in Winter with a value 3 for snow in the sun and a drop of 3 to a 6 in the shadows.
The painting that I observed the biggest difference between sun and shade values was Path Behind Mowat Lodge with a difference of 5 – from a 3 in the sunlit area to an 8 in the blue/purple shadows cast upon the snow.
So what did I learn from my little study? Snow in the sun should be depicted with a value of around a 2 to 4 and the shadow on the snow are about 2 to 3 points lower (darker). This generally mean a value between 5 and 7. Of course my little investigation is not highly scientific. I was just working off prints in books (Incidentally Tom Thomson, edited by Dennis Reid is a good one, full of images ). I think that maybe if I could measure the value with scientific instruments directly off the original paintings then I could know the secret – but then again I think it probably wouldn’t make that much difference and having a formula, or specific numerical values certainly isn’t going to allow one to recreate the magic of a Tom Thomson painting.
Here are links to a few other Tom Thomson paintings featuring snow from the National Gallery of Canada in Ottawa, Canada:
January Variety (Photos)
Here are a good variety of photos that I took this third week of January 2010. There are some night, some day, some clear, some snowy, some abstract, some representational:
Edmonton Southside Skyline
Snowy Morning - Dawson Bridge
Street Rabbit
Blue Waves
Abstract Snow
Facade and 50 Abstracts
Diebenkorn in New Mexico – a Book Review
I fell in love with the art of Richard Diebenkorn first when I saw some of his pieces in San Francisco at the Museum of Modern Art, then when I read “The Art of Richard Diebenkorn” by Jane Livingston (See my earlier blog post). I was hungry to learn more about him and to see more of his work.
This book, Richard Diebenkorn in New Mexico, satisfied my hunger. It focuses on Diebenkorn’s time in Albuquerque while he was doing a Masters degree at the University of New Mexico. He was there from 1950 to 1952 and produced some 200 works (paintings mainly but also some prints and sculpture). I like how the paintings occasionally hint at the colors and forms of the New Mexico landscape.
Richard Diebenkorn in New Mexico, the 2007 book was published in conjunction with an exhibition of the same name. It features 83 full page color plates and many other photos of his work amongst the text. The text is made up of an introduction by Charles M. Lovell and 3 essays – by Charles Strong and Gerald Nordland and Mark Lavatelli. These three takes on Diebenkorn’s time in the region have some overlap but are nonetheless each interesting.
Charles Strong is a curator and artist who studied with Diebenkorn for a short time in San Francisco. Strong’s two page “The Sky is the Ocean” serves as an overview to Diebenkorn’s life and work.
Gerald Nordland is the author of the book Richard Diebenkorn: Revised and Expanded and a recognized authority on Diebenkorn. His substantial section of this book entitled “Richard Diebenkorn: Routes to New Mexico” sets the stage for the Albuquerque period describing Diebenkorn’s life from his childhood to his life as a student in New Mexico (and a little beyond)
The Mark Lavatelli short, 5 page essay, “Diebenkorn’s Albuquerque Years” focuses on just that. He talks about the paintings from that time as well as the influences and how the period shaped Diebenkorn’s style. Lavatelli too know the work of Diebenkorn well, having done his MFA on Diebenkorn’s paintings from the New Mexico period.
All in all, this is a good book. I’d loved to have seen the exhibition which this volume accompanied but since I didn’t, this book will have to do. I know I will be coming back to the images in this book regularly in the future, as I enjoy and try to understand, the works of this wonderful painter: Richard Diebenkorn.
For more, read the New York Times review of the book.
Color in a Cold Dark City
Consider this part two of my presentation of photos taken on the cold snowy night of January 14th in downtown Edmonton. In a previous post I shared 7 black and white photos from that evening. In this post we look at color photos, although admittedly in some images the colors are pretty subtle.
Trees, Signs and Lights in a Snowstorm
Some Kind of Snow Monster?
Fighter
Snow Booth
Stairwell
Lights at the Corner
Lonely Bike Rack
Jasper Avenue Southside
Snow on the Wires, Snow on the Windows
Lamp and Snow Mounds
Snow Load
In the Cold Dark City
Here are some black and white photos from a cold, snowy January evening in downtown Edmonton. The evening was cold but I wasn’t. Bundled up as I was and moving about, I actually felt warmer out on the street taking photos than I often do sitting around inside the house. Being something like -30C with the wind chill, there weren’t many people on the street and certainly no one else with a camera, so I think I saw things that others will not have seen, and I got some good shots that I would like to share:
Northside of Jasper Avenue (East of 97 St.)
Bridges
Empty Sidewalk, Deserted Benches
Wall Advertising from Another Era on a Historic Building
Cleared Path Through the Snow Drifts
Steamy Skyline
Top of the Riverbank Path
These photos were all taken within about a 2 block stretch east from Jasper Avenue and 97th Street in downtown Edmonton. These were the images that I think look best in black and white but I also have a number that I will leave in color and will share in my next blog posting.
Steps in Developing a Painting
Some people may wonder how I go about creating a painting. In this post I will share my steps in the development of a recent canvas.
This painting started off from a photo. The photo was one I took while out for a walk with our dog in Edmonton’s river valley. When walking I am usually carrying my Nikon D80 equipped with either a 18-55 or 55-200 lens. I took over 100 photos over the course of a couple of hours. This is the photo that inspired me for the painting:
original photograph
The broken tree trunk was the obvious central object that attracted me but I also liked the snow, some of the other tree forms and also the sky with the contrast between sky and clouds. I don’t like my paintings to be too much like a photo, especially with respect to color. Therefore I will often convert my color reference photo to black and white. I will want to get the values right but not be a slave to the natural colors. In the process of converting to black and white I will also take the opportunity to apply color filters and adjust the contrast/brightness. I use Nikon’s Capture NX2 software for the processing. This is my black and white reference photo:
enhanced black and white photo
I really liked the way the “red” filter turned the sky dark. What I didn’t like about the photo was how busy the mid-ground looked with all of the brush. Here I was able to apply my artistic license to clear out the million little lines and emphasize a few key tree elements. I may have done a few small thumbnail sketches to test out my idea , then I transferred my design to the canvas (12 by 16 inches/30×41 cm), drawing it in with charcoal:
charcoal sketch on canvas
You can see how much I have simplified the scene, taking liberties with the sky and the trees. From there it was time to start applying color. I did not refer to the color photo for the “real” colors. At this point I went with my gut to realize the colors that I somehow envisioned. In this case, I started by painting in the sky. You can see even at this stage I made some alterations to the design as I had drawn in with charcoal:
half-painted
The painting continued as I moved to the tree and foreground. Especially for these key elements I choose to apply the paint think and juicy.
"finished" painting
I call this work “finished” (in quotes) because it may not be. I see a number of things that I wonder if I could improve upon. I could continue to rework this painting but I generally I do not like to re-work, especially after the paint has started to dry. Instead I would prefer to live with this painting for awhile, thinking about what I like and noting what I think can be improved – and then I will paint another version. In fact with this one, I am thinking of a couple of small studies and then I will paint a larger version.
Link to more of my abstracted landscape paintings (often developed in similar fashion from photos)
Dawn, Dusk and Dark
Here are three photos from 2010 January 11. It was a cold day (-20C not including the wind chill), a few days after the heaviest snowfall (30cm) in Edmonton in the last decade
Dawn and Purple Snow
The above photo was taken as i stopped to catch my breath while trudging uphill through snow that was knee deep in places.
Snow-laden Pine at Dusk
The above photo is calling me to create a painting from it. I like the fact that this classic landscape motif has an urban backdrop.
Lighted Curve in the Dark
And the sun was gone by the time I took this photo. It is in central Edmonton looking east over the North Saskatchewan river valley with the glow on the distant horizon from the distant oil refineries.
Northern Winter Landscape
There is something about that winter landscape that I find particularly suited to black and white photography. There is not a lot of color to start with, so going completely hue-less really can accentuate some great forms and compositions.
This set of photos were taken on January 5th (2010) in Edmonton, Canada *
Frozen River
Crossed
Little Bridge
untitled
I think this last photo has some potential as a reference for a painting. I will play around a bit with the composition and clear out some of the busy-ness. I often like to start a painting with a black and white photo as a reference, particularly when I want to be free and expressionistic with the color.
*specifically, the location was the trail on the northside of the North Saskatchewan River between the Capilano bridge and the 50th Street footbridge
Northern Light – a book review
NORTHERN LIGHT, The enduring mystery of Tom Thomson and the woman who loved him is an interesting and tragic book. I won’t spoil the mystery by revealing the author’s conclusions but I will say it was a good, entertaining read. MacGregor wraps up years of investigation (his own and others) to lay out all of the theories and suspects around the death of legendary Canadian painter Tom Thomson back in 1917.
Northern Light by Roy MacGregor
Aside from addressing the Thompson mystery, there is another major theme to this book. Northern Light devotes significant pages to the sad story of Winnie Trainor, who was reported to be engaged to Thomson and just perhaps… After Thomson’s death she lead a rather solitary and sometimes mysterious life.
Much of the story takes place in and around Canoe Lake in Algonquin Park in Northern Ontario. This area was the base for many of Thomson’s sketching and outdoors adventures and also the location of the lakeside cabin of the Trainor family. Through the book we are introduced to an intriguing cast of characters and their white lies, second hand stories and faded memories. No doubt it is very challenging to piece together a story, to solve a mystery, without a lot of documentary evidence but MacGregor does a very admirable job. A number of times while reading I thought “Okay, now I know what the author is thinking” only to realize that there was still a good portion of the book to go. Sure enough, as the remaining pages unfolded more twists and evidence were revealed, contributing to the entertaining read.
Northern Light was published by Random House in the October of 2010. The 357 page book includes a couple of simple but welcome maps of Northern Ontario around Algonquin Park and the Canoe Lake areas. Also useful are the many black and white photos reproduced through the pages. It’s great to look through books rich with big color images of Tom Thomson paintings. This book doesn’t have any of those painting reproductions but still is a worthwhile read that I recommend to fans of Canadian painting and to those just interested in a good real-life mystery story.
Trees and Snow – in black and white
Time: Mid-day, Tuesday January 4th
Weather: -1C and snowing moderately
Location: Edmonton’s river valley, trail on the south and east side of the river north of Dawson Bridge
River in Heavy Snow
Birch Bark and Snow
Snowy Trail
Heavy Texture
Silhouette Four
Snow Beaver Gnawing Stump
Tree Trunk
January Color
With the temperatures warming (-5C) yesterday (2011/1/3) I had a chance to pull out my iPhone and take a few pictures in the downtown area. I enjoy the simplicity of a small mobile phone and the creative tools that can so easily be applied. These colorful images were mostly taken near the Convention (Shaw Conference) Centre in downtown Edmonton.
Traction Abstraction
Sunset Looking East
Viewpoint Sunset
Tracks in the Snow
Flame in the Sky
Landscape Painting ReWorked
Here is what I was working at in the studio on January 2nd. I started with this landscape that I had painted, maybe a couple of years ago. I was never too happy with it – never called it done, never signed it, never even thought of putting it in the wall of my house:
untitled landscape (North Saskatchewan River)
I wasn’t too happy with this because it lacked impact. Although when I painted this there was a very bright reflection off of the river in the foreground, the whiteness in this painting wasn’t working for me. The background seemed to muddy too – I was looking for something less realistic in terms of color and more expressionistic.
Untitled - reworked (North Saskatchewan River)
I was working without any references to the actual scene – just going on instinct as to what color and value would look good where. I wanted to increase the saturation of the colors – make them less muddy, less earthy. Although the composition remains unchanged I was also aiming to break up the straight line top edge of the foreground grasses and the midground shoreline. At the time of the painting I though I was accomplishing this but looking back now I see the lines are still too straight.
I also brought up the overall value of the river while toning down the overly strong white reflection. I like the river better but it is not reading like the river in my memory.
So what if the future for this painting? It’ll probably dry and go back on the shelf. Maybe at some point in the future I will put it back on the easel and with some new insights, rework it one more time.
Defiant Spirits – a book review
I have just finished reading DEFIANT SPIRITS, The Modernist Revolution of the Group of Seven by Ross King. It was a very enjoyable and informative read. King traces the formation of the great, now quintessential Canadian art movement, tying together the characters and the history of the time.
Defiant Spirits by Ross King
Although I was generally familiar with the Group of Seven, there were two fundamental lessons that had never really clicked into place for me before reading this book. The first was the influence of the First World War and secondly the struggle by the Group for acceptance of their art by critics and the public.
The First World War (The Great War) was very important to Canada’s development as an independent and influential nation on the world stage. I had heard this fact before but King makes it all so clear from the pressure at home to enlist, to the adventures and horrors experienced by members of the future group who fought in the trenches and served as war artists. A significant part of the book is set in Britain providing interesting insights into not only to the Group of Seven and painting, but also to the war effort and military structure.
It seems so hard for me to believe that the style of the Group of Seven met with such resistance in their time. Their art was decried by many critics and the public as radical, revolutionary and just poor art. The artists felt strong in their commitment to develop a distinctive, modern Canadian style of painting. They benefited from limited but critical support from two people. First was Dr. MacCallum who provided financial support that allowed key members to concentrate on their art and importantly to stay in Canada, so that their collective influences could ignite the movement. Second was the support of the National Gallery and particularly director Eric Brown and Sir Edmund Walker under whose guidance paintings of the group were purchased (not without criticism and controversy). The strong moral support (and of course the money) from this national institution obviously gave the Group members confidence to carry on with their struggle.
Another aspect of this book (in fact the one that first piqued my interest) was regarding the possible influences of the European art movements of the time upon the Group of Seven members. I have been a long time fan of the the Impressionist and Post-impressionist movements in France and curious if there were any connections with the Canadian landscape painting school. In Defiant Spirits, King does explain a number of connecting threads, such as which of the Canadians studied in Europe or otherwise came into contact with European art movements of the time.
The book also paints a clear picture of the relation between Tom Thomson and the Group of Seven. I have long believed the supposition that Thomson, had he not died, would surely had been a member of the group, once if formally formed. This book presents so many examples of Thomson interactions with and influence upon the future members of the group (for example sharing studios and travels) that there can be no doubt.
Defiant Spirits is divided into three “books” and each book has a section with color plates of some of the paintings that are discussed. The book also features numerous black and white photos, particularly of the characters. The book seems to be very well researched (with an extensive bibliography) and definitely is well presented. It is a great story. I don’t hesitate to recommend it to anyone who is interested in the Group of Seven and this period of Canadian history.
Randall Talbot - Artist 