Brush Work and Mark Making -The Handwriting of the Artist
I spent a lot of my studio time recently experimenting with different ways to apply paint. An artist can learn about the foundational elements of art such as drawing, value, and color mixing but it is the act of applying pigment that makes each artist unique. Paint application is a personal rendering of how all the elements are brought together. In oil paint this is called brush work and in pastel it is called mark making. Both terms describe the manner of application that creates a surface quality.
Paint application is usually not the first thing you think about when you look at a painting. You might like the subject or the colors yet the application says so much about the mood and the intent of the artist. We read the surface of the painting like we read handwriting. We read the words to understand what the author is saying but how they are written affects our perception.
As with handwriting, paint strokes can be analyzed. They can speak of confidence or tentativeness. They can be bold and thick or barely perceptible. Paint application gives us insight to the mind and mood of the artist. Think of Van Gogh and his frenzied application of thick, short strokes of paint that transform a bucolic landscape into a frenzied panorama.
Compare that to the works of William Adolphe Bouguerau and his smooth application created through a long process of glazing and scumbling. This careful application creates realistic skin tones that are lustrous and translucent.
Now imagine if the artist painted the other’s subject matter. How would the mood of “Wheatfield with Crows” painted by Bouguerau look compared to Van Gogh’s? How would “The Nut Gatherer’s” change in the hands of Van Gogh?
Last November I set up to do a computer presentation for my local art guild. Due to a technical glitch I had to switch at the last minute to doing a painting demo. I always come over-prepared just in case something happens, so I had my pastels with me and a reference of a sunset over a lake.
It is a scene I am very familiar with so I was able to talk through the the process while I painted. It was done in one hour start to finish and has a different energy than this pastel of a similar scene which was planned and worked on in the studio for a long period of time.
The paintings are the same medium and similar subject matter but painted under a different mindset that affected the application and created different moods.
This watercolor was an experiment and I had no expectations of how it would come out. Sometimes the freedom that comes with experimentation adds an undercurrent of ease to the painting.
This oil has been a grand experiment of textures - from the smooth coat to the broad passages of thick snow and grass played against the thin transparent darks of the trees. The play of textures adds interest to a somber palette.
If you want to explore more about mark making, I have an online workshop, Expressive Mark Making in Pastel, May 14-15. There are a few spaces open if you are interested. Click here for more information.
