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Teaching The Authentic Impressionist Styles of Art
By Master Artist HughO'Neill
If only we could have Monet, Sargent or Pissarro in the studio with us, teaching and guiding us? We can't but our artistic heroes did leave some very insightful remarks pertaining to their painting systems and day to day mechanics of painting in the style we now call Impressionism
In this piece I will focus only on those painters who actually sustained the impressionistic style throughout their entire lives which includes me of course as your instructor.
Dubois Impressionist scene Fl, by HughO'Neill 30 x40 sold
"There are no lines in nature, only areas of color, one against another “Edouard Manet
"I perhaps owe having become a painter to flowers" Monet
“I didn't become an impressionist. As long as I can remember I always have been one. “Monet
"The impressionists study color exclusively but without freedom always shackled by the need of probability. They heed only the eye and neglect the mysterious canters of thought and so fall into merely scientific reasoning when they speak of their art, what is it? A purely superficial thing, full of affections and only material. In it thought does not exist" GAUGIN
We will examine significant statements like that above made by the masters of Impressionism about impressionism I will use them as a guide towards a better understanding of how you can achieve the highest quality in your paintings. To paint like a Sargent, Manet, Boudin, Monet, and Pissarro some one must actually shows the student the approach in real time so I will be painting and demonstrating every step of the way for you. I will take you down the path of color that should lead you to a clearer understanding of the genre
"So do not believe that I would artificially maintain a feverish state, but know that that I am in the middle of a complicated calculation, resulting in canvases turned out one after the other high speed, but calculated long in advance. And so when they tell you that this has been done too quickly you can reply that it is they that have looked too quickly"Van Gogh letter to his brother Theo 1888
THE TERM IMPRESSIONISM
The term "Impressionism" was given to the collection of works painted by the artists. It was based on the title of Claude Monet’s painting "Impression: Sunrise," a painting on display at the exhibition in Paris. The critics saw the painters’ work as an "impression" of a subject. The term was meant to be an insult. The term impressionism is in a way a title of sorts like romanticism, realism, but does not explain the techniques used
“It’s on the strength of observation and reflection that one finds a way. So we must dig and delve unceasingly. When you go out to paint, try to forget what objects you have before you, a tree, a house, a field or whatever. Merely think here is a little square of blue, here an oblong of pink, here a streak of yellow, and paint it just as it looks to you, the exact color and shape, until it gives you own naïve impression of the scene before you.” Monet
The accurate term to describe an IMPRESSIONIST technique is TONAL FORM ,a working method I learned in Europe and first researched the style while at University too many years ago! It was the method used by most impressionist painters but not all (as well as other contemporary artists including myself) a book by Sir Harold Speed is considered the most interesting .Here Pissarro explains the method precisely
"It is the brushwork of the right value and color which should produce the drawing."Camille Pissarro
For the sake of this class we will focus only on those painters who actually sustained the impressionistic style throughout their entire lives
HOW IT WORKS Instead of a carefully drawn out outline filled in with colors, the whole subject before the Artist is considered as a range of color or tone alone: drawing having only to do with the shapes masses. Thinking in some respect like a sculptor, carving out shapes of space, and light with powerfully accurate tones. Artist's like Monet drew and painted simultaneously with brush- the color, light, value and form of the subject, with strokes of precise hues and values. With careful focus to where one tonal form meets another. Monet drew and painted simultaneously - the color, light, value and form of the subject, with strokes of precisely related hues and values. His forms were exact - but without the use of line.
"Don't paint bit by bit, but paint everything at once by placing tones everywhere, with brushstrokes of the right colour and value, while noticing what is alongside. The eye should not be fixed on one spot, but should take in everything, while observing the reflections which the colours produce on their surroundings." Camille Pissarro
MONETS PALETTE
Lead white (modern equivalent = titanium white) Viridian green
Chrome yellow (modern equivalent = cadmium yellow light) Cadmium yellow Emerald green French ultramarine Cobalt blue French ultramarine Cobalt blue Madder red (modern equivalent = alizarin crimson) Vermilion
VAN GOGH'S PALETTE
Included yellow ocher, chrome yellow and cadmium yellow, chrome orange, vermilion, Prussian blue, ultramarine, lead white and zinc white, emerald green, red lake, red ocher, raw sienna, and black
GAUGUIN’S PALETTE
Colours Gauguin regularly used included Prussian blue, cobalt blue, emerald green, viridian, cadmium yellow, chrome yellow, red ochre, cobalt violet, and lead or zinc white
BRUSHES
All the French impressionists used various types of brushes the lone exception is Gauguin who may have use a palette knife occasionally. I prefer to use the rounds and suggest you do too. A separate supply sheet is available
IMPRESSIONIST STYLES
What is Style? I will be asking students to choose one or two artists whose style of painting they really admire and would want to emulate in their own work. My reason is simple: you can admire or like many styles of art but you simply can't paint in every style, The artist most focus on enhancing or learning how to paint in the style they set out to achieve. Monet's style of applying paint is very different from Renoir but they are both considered Impressionists working at the same period. Here are a few important names that are acknowledged by the impressionists themselves as having been the pioneers of the movement: TURNER CONSTABLE, COROT, BOUDIN, MANET In this workshop we will take a closer look at their work to find out why they influenced the Impressionists
“I've said it before and can only repeat that I owe everything to Boudin and I attribute my success to him. I came to be fascinated by his studies, the products of what I call instantaneity. “ Claude Monet
"Painting isn't so difficult when you don't know ... But when you do ... it's quite a different matter!" Degas
IMPRESSIONIST EXPERTS EXPLAIN THE TECHNIQUE
"When you go out to paint, try to forget what objects you have before you, a tree, a house, a field or whatever. Merely think here is a little square of blue, here an oblong of pink, here a streak of yellow, and paint it just as it looks to you, the exact color and shape, until it gives you own naïve impression of the scene before you.” Monet
I don’t invent the whole of the painting"Van Gogh 1888
I follow no system of brushwork at all “Van Gogh 1888
"So do not believe that I would artificially maintain a feverish state, but know that that I am in the middle of a complicated calculation, resulting in canvases turned out one after the other high speed, but calculated long in advance. And so when they tell you that this has been done too quickly you can reply that it is they that have looked too quickly"Van Gogh letter to his brother Theo 1888
"I could only really be myself, once I had got rid of impressionism and gone back to studying in museums. I had gone as far as I could with impressionism and I had reached the conclusion that I couldn’t either draw or paint. In a word I was stuck. Renoir writing to Vollard
"There are no lines in nature, only areas of color, one against another “Edouard Manet
“It is the brushwork of the right value and color which should produce the drawing.” Camille Pissarro
The Sculptor does not begin his work with a contour. Delacroix
“No great painters were ever self taught" Constable
"There are no lines in nature …. there are only form and color" Thomas Eakins 1879
"The impressionists study color exclusively but without freedom always shackled by the need of probability. They heed only the eye and neglect the mysterious canters of thought and so fall into merely scientific reasoning. When they speak of their art, what is it? A purely superficial thing, full of affections and only material. In it thought does not exist" GAUGIN
"I assure you no art was ever less spontaneous than mine. What I do is the result of reflection and study of the great masters; of inspiration, spontaneity, temperament ... I know nothing."
MONET
"EDOUARD MANET often used to say that he learned his trade over again with each picture he painted. It is this sincerity, this impressionability that gives his work so much charm" Berthe Morisot note books 1885
"I retain from nature a certain sequence and a certain correctness in placing the tones; I study nature, so as not to do foolish things, to remain reasonable.... (Letter to Theo van Gogh, October 1885)
