Workshop in Tuscany June 3 - 10th

Improve your paintings while enjoying your vacation in Italy.

Bring the two together in an all inclusive painting workshop in Tuscany, Italy. 

Discover how to paint a plein air in just 20 minutes.

Italy has always been the first choice location for artists who flock here from all over the world to experience the light, friendly people, good food and verdant Italian countryside. 

Tom J. Byrne will be demonstrating painting techniques to both beginners and more established plein air painters, using oils and watercolor this June 3rd - 10th in the beautifully converted Watermill at Posara along the river Rosaro. It offers very comfortable accommodation with a great chef, comfortable quarters and good company.

Painters will visit local beauty spots to explore painting opportunities with their easels and demonstrations will take place both in the villa and on site. From very quick study methods to more elaborate painting techniques. We will focus on composition. 20 minute painting studies in both oil and watercolor. Best practice in laying in a plein air painting. Under painting for plein air and alla prima in oil. How to use watercolor in wet on wet and color layers.

For more information visit the Watermill

http://watermill.net/painting-holidays/painting-holidays-tutor-tom-j-byrne17.php

Painting in the crowded streets of Florence

Painting requires a lot of concentration and a certain amount of zen to do well.

So pleinairing among crowds in a busy square goes against the grain for most artists but it's a great exercise and can sometimes be necessary.

I recently joined a couple of other artists doing just that in Florence. We started easy, in the relative quiet of the Boboli gardens at the Isolotto fountain, which features in Dan Browns book, Inferno. It's presence in the novel attracted people who might otherwise not have known of it. The weather was tempestuous with thunder and some light rain but it mostly held off. We discussed the light and established the best view for the subject and began painting.

'The Ocean' fountain by Tom J. Byrne

Visitors to the garden were polite and those few who spoke to us were genuinely interested.

Niklas Elgmo with his completed art.

It was an enjoyable day. We were successful in our goals and worked with relatively little distraction.







The next location was Piazza della Signoria, which is a very different environment where you are challenged not just by the fast moving light but by the enormous crowds. The light appears to move faster because you are basically inside a sundial whose shadows are constantly racing. Statues which are brilliantly lit one moment can be obscured within a few minutes and brightly lit spaces can quickly fill with shadow from a pivoting tower or giant statue.


Foolishly, without planning and calculating the movement of the sun, I began a painting of statues in the Loggia. Although beautifully lit when I began, the shadows slowly crept over the forms and all the light was gone before I had completed the drawing. I also allowed myself to become intoxicated by the drawing rather than think strategically about what it was I needed to do, so the drawing took longer and was more detailed than necessary. By the time I was ready to paint, the shady area in which I had placed myself was flooded with so much light that the canvas was blinding. So my subject was suddenly obscured by shadow and my canvas obscured by light. I had to abandon that painting.

Timothy Atkins capturing a street scene.

Three of us returned the following day and set up our easels. I set up at the mouth of what seemed to be a quiet and unnoticed laneway to the left of the Loggia. Here I prepared to paint the statue of Neptune and the surrounding Piazza. This time I was careful with my light planning and composition.

Working quickly I laid in the shadows, keeping the details to a minimum. There were hoards of people everywhere but my little space was relatively quiet or so I thought.

Niklas Elgmo tackling the shadows.

Every half hour or so a tour guide wishing to evade the other crowds would bring their group through the alleyway and it was necessary to either move the easel or hope that no one would trip over one of the legs.









There is definitely a difference between a painting done in relative peace and harmony and one done in the more crowded public space


Mastering the art of finding an island of quiet within the milling crowds  is the goal. There is always one somewhere.

Piazza Della Signora. Neptune in oils by Tom J. Byrne.

William Turners intriguing Seascape

While researching one of my favorite landscape painters, William Turner, I learned a little about the back story of one his seascapes which now resides in the John Paul Getty Museum.

I was studying his painting method when I noticed something odd about the painting and discovered that Turner was also a master of hidden messages.

Title: Van Tromp, going about to please his Masters / Getting a Good Wetting.
Painted in 1844 using oil on canvas on canvas. The painting measures 92.4 x 123.2cm.

Admiral Von Tromp

The scene, like many other great Turner paintings, has few defined details and almost no hard edges. Despite this there is enormous energy and our imaginations are swept up in the impression of waves crashing together. We imagine that we can see the sailors aboard and feel all the ships being battered about.

On closer examination that is true of one ship with a sailor tipping his hat to an audience looking out from other vessels. But the other boats are in calmer waters.

How does Turner create this contradictory visual impression in the same painting and why?

Lines:
Turner uses the patterns of lines very cleverly. The masts, twisting into the sky give the impression that all the near ships are being tossed about on the waves. They point into the sky in opposing directions as though they were on the crests of opposing, clashing waves. The waves in the foreground support that impression by rolling and cresting in dramatic fashion.

Closer detail:
When we look a little closer, following the view of the sailor we see that his audience are in fact in boats resting in very calm waters. They are also using oars, with no need for sails. So the sails are just for show. Turner has used them like a magician, to give the impression that all boats are in the same waters, together.

So what could this painting be telling us?
The military gun boat in the distance might offer a hint.

When the back story is known this scene makes some sense and it's clear that the painting contains a message.

The sailor tipping his hat is Admiral Von Tromp whom Turner was an admirer of. Von Tromp was dismissed from the Dutch naval service in 1666 after failing to follow orders. This failure would later prove to be his saving grace.

Quoting the J. P. Getty Museum:
"Van Tromp was reinstated in service and reconciled with his navy superiors in 1673. In perhaps a symbolic overture signaling his submission to authority, Tromp is shown, in Turner's words, "going about to please his Masters."

The warship in the distance suggests a threat of military enforcement and the people viewing from the ships in calmer waters may be his military superiors with the Dutch West Indian shareholders. So the painting, on closer examination is probably a story of political and commercial interests bringing an adventurous spirit to heel.

To learn more about the backstory, which is rippling with intrigue, follow this link & scroll down to the engraving of the St James day Fight. A short overview of the life story of Cornelis Tromp here.