Graduate Thesis Showcase: School of Fine Art
Creating Mood: A Study of Atmosphere & Aerial Perspective
by Bryan Taylor
Pages: < back | 1 | 2
Date: April 26, 2005
Time: 2:00 – 3:00
Synopsis
My final MFA project focuses on the exploration and development of the artistic techniques necessary to successfully convey mood in landscape paintings. The physical body of work consists of 15 studio paintings in oil ranging in size from 16" x 20" to 30" x 40". The subject matter of these paintings includes Bay Area, Rocky Mountain, and central Italian landscapes. I used photographs and plein air studies as my references and attempted to transfer the freshness of my studies to each studio piece.
To achieve the above goal, I depicted atmospheric conditions by mastering values and colors as they related to aerial perspective. Throughout the project, I continued working on the following principles of composition: attention to primary and secondary focal points, increased sensitivity to drawing, attention to color temperature, awareness of edges, and using a variety of brush strokes. Perfecting these skills improved my ability to communicate concepts in my work.
I believe in the philosophical concept that the beauty of nature can inspire and uplift mankind. I have come to a personal understanding that a powerful, wise, and loving creator made the earth beautiful for our benefit; therefore, I see the beauty of the landscape as an expression of love towards us. In my work, I attempt to convey the idea that although there are great challenges and difficulties in the world, stopping to contemplate the beauty around us can bring moments of peace and joy. When I am successful, I believe that my painting becomes not just a depiction of the physical, but also a connection with the spiritual nature of the landscape.
My final project is centered on depicting representational landscape; consequently, I recognize the need to spend a great deal of time studying nature directly in order to convey a feeling of authenticity and personal experience. My time spent outside observing and pondering nature has become a defining characteristic in my personal artistic identity.
Several years ago, I connected with the plein air painting movement. The practice of painting on location allowed me to develop greater sensitivity to my subject matter, and capture a truer sense of light and distance. Plein air studies became my preferred means of recording impressions and feelings of natural settings. These studies enabled me to create paintings in the studio that had a genuine sense of atmosphere and mood.
My creative process begins when painting on location. Because of changing light conditions, I need to work quickly and prefer canvases that are between 9" x 12" and 11" x 14". Later, I bring the studies into the studio and use them as references for larger finished paintings. One challenge I faced was maintaining the freshness of the study in the studio piece. Over time, I realized that I was overworking the paint. When painting outdoors, the time restriction forced me to place a stroke on the canvas and leave it. This gave my studies a look of vitality. In the studio, when time was no longer an issue, I would over modify each stroke; therefore, the painting would often end up looking tired and overworked. After trial and error, I realized the key to keeping the painting fresh was restricting the time spent on each passage. If an area became overworked, I would simply scrape it off and start over. By adopting this practice, my studio work retained the freshness of the original studies.
It is very important to me that my paintings look "fresh." Freshness refers not only to the physical way paint is placed on the canvas, but also the way it conveys a certain feeling. Exact technique becomes necessary only when it assists in creating a visual language that clearly expresses my ideas. I do not use one particular technique, color scheme, or brushstroke when creating a piece. Instead, I try to capture and arrange the components of a scene into a cohesive whole using the fundamental principles learned in my classes.
Color harmony in my work is an additional challenge. Colors in the landscape have a natural inclination towards overwhelming amounts of yellow and blue--except during the light of the setting sun. The key to creating greater harmony and balance in my painting is the use of red to modify greens and blues. When shades of violet are included in my landscapes, the intense green present in the foliage and grasses is modified; the result is a more pleasing color harmony.
Edgar Payne and George Inness are two artists influential in my work. Each artist has a unique approach to nature, but both have mastered the balance between personal vision and artistic principles. By studying their paintings, I have learned to include a greater sense of design in my own work by considering how each part of the painting contributes to the whole. Careful selection of visual information strengthens the unity within each piece. I have also observed that too much detail and too many highlights can break up masses and ruin the abstract quality of a piece.
An art instructor told me that the most important thing to gain in school is an awareness of the major issues involved with good picture making. My time at the Academy of Art has assisted me in learning the principles of landscape painting; after graduation, I will spend the rest of my career working to improve and deepen my understanding of them.