Painting the “Essentials”

September 28, 2009

Valencian Fisherman by Joaquin Sorolla

The “essentials”, also called “the critical information”, which I mentioned in the the previous post, are so called because our paintings will not work without them. The Four Value Planes and the Five Types of Light are the pieces of information that we need to look for as we paint. We need to state them effectively as they relate to each other in life. Notice in Sorolla’s painting how definite he was about his three value planes (no slanted planes in this one). The sky is the lightest, the flat lying plane of the water is second and the uprights of the men and boat are comparatively dark. Failure to understand this point will mean that our paintings will not “read” properly. Anyone who has taken his or her supplies outdoors to paint a landscape from life can attest to the fact that it is possible for things to get out of hand. Winston Churchill put it this way: “The pictorial battlefield becomes a sea of mud mercifully veiled by the fog of war. It is evident there has been a serious defeat.” (LOL) Usually this happens because we have lost touch with the critical information.

In his “Guide to Landscape Painting“, John F. Carlson said, “There probably never was a picture that was poor because it lacked detail or subject matter; rather the opposite. Bad paintings are usually so overloaded with useless detail that the essentials are obliterated.” That is not to say that detail is bad a thing only that useless detail will detract from your work. The statement also implies that bad paintings suffer from a lack of essentials. Which of course begs the question, “How can I proceed in a way that avoids missing this critical information?”

I don’t want to lay down rules of procedure for starting a canvas outdoors but I feel I should give a hint for beginners to follow. You can start by arranging your four value planes in a flat poster-like design. Give them unequal weight, in the light and dark sense, trying to follow nature as you go. After these value masses are clearly stated you can proceed to their beautification through the painting of form (the Five Types of Light) within each mass. We’ll pick up there next time. For now I am going to leave you with another field study done at my favorite place in Ft. Desoto Park, Pinellas Co., Fl. This was done on a completely overcast day. I started it in the way described above. This scene has only three value planes mainly because there are no mountains in Florida. (Although if you watch any of the old Elvis movies which were set in Ft. Lauderdale or Miami their are always beautiful mountains in the background.) Within in the three value planes there are five different value masses. The sky is one, the horizontal plane has two (water and muck), and the upright plane has two as well (distant trees and foreground trees).