Effective Positioning of Values
August 13, 2009
by Thomas Worthington Whittredge
Here is another painting from the Museum of Fine Art in St. Petersburg, Fl. This piece by Thomas Worthington Whittredge is either a new aquistion or fresh out of storage because I had not seen it before. Whittredge (1820-1910), a Hudson River School Artist, was friends with Sanford Robinson Gifford and John Frederick Kensett. (Their names tempt me to insist that everyone call me Robert James Simone all the time!) During the ten years (1849-1859) he spent in Europe, Whittredge studied at the Dusseldorf Academy and met Albert Bierstadt and Emanuel Leutze. He posed as both George Washington and as a steersman in Leutze’s famous painting Washington Crossing the Delaware.
Washington Crossing the Delaware from artrenewal.org
Like other Hudson River School Artists, Whittredge often produced large scale paintings. However, this one in the St. Pete collection is small, about 18″ x 14″. Despite its small size I think it contains a key learning point. To put it in the words of Stapleton Kearns, Whittredge “stacked his values”. That is, he positioned different values one in front of another. Notice the dark value cypress tree in front of the medium value house which is front of the light value clouds. Simple, I know, but very effective. It helps create depth and interest. The painting “reads” clearly because of it. We can employ this strategy whether we paint landscapes, still life, portraits or figures. We can use it working in the studio or en plein air. Today’s plein air artists often forget to take advantage of design techniques like this. Many believe plein air painting is about capturing “a moment” and so they work to record the scene in front of them without changes. Others, myself included, believe the artist’s job is to create a work of art using nature as reference material. Those who hold this viewpoint are more likely to rearrange and design the scene before them.
Whittredge (source - Don Kurtz via artrenewal.org)
These different viewpoints remind of that story about the monkey…The one where they tied a bottle to a tree and put a peanut in it. When the monkey reached in to grasp the peanut he couldn’t get his closed fist out of the bottle. Then they put a pile of peanuts just out of reach of his other hand. All the monkey had to do was let go of the one peanut so he could get his hand out of the bottle and reach the whole pile. But he wouldn’t do it.
The mention of this story is not to deride or ridicule those of you who like to maintain complete fidelity to your scene. It’s only to encourage you to let go once in awhile. Those times when you do take liberties will strengthen your ability to select dynamic scenes when you want to “capture the moment”
I hope this helps. Until next week….
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Simone:
Just found your blog. Lots of good stuff! Saw the Stape quote and thought “did I say that?” I will post a link to your blog in my sidebar so that my readers will find you also.
……….Stape