Regruppeing

I received a couple of questions about my last Gruppe post so I thought I would talk about Emile a little more . Here a question;

"Was he thinking about this while painting in the field or do you think he did some reworking later in the studio? There is so much to consider while outdoors that it's tough enough to just get the picture on the canvas. Which brings up another question. Do you think he visited the same location on multiple days? Did he go back out on this One , or did he only go there one time? "

I don't think Gruppe took a painting out twice very often, if ever, at least not as a mature artist. He was an extremely prolific painter and everything I have seen looked to me as if it was done in on e shot. The upside of that is that he designed a lot of paintings and got good at that part of the puzzle. He also had LOTS of inventory which he sold like crazy at reasonable prices. The downside is that his oeuvre was extremely uneven. Emile made some really fine paintings, when he was good he was great. However there are a lot of Gruppes out there that are well.... a little undercooked.

A lot of Gruppes are in the 25 by 30 size range.He was a plein air painter even using the tightest definition. He was a plein air painter to a greater extent than almost any other artist I can think of. I don't think he reworked stuff in the studio at all.

One of the ways he made so many pictures was to return over and over to the same scene. The Baptist church in Rockport or some of the dock scenes in Gloucester were used for subject matter over and over, with varying results. On this page are more paintings of the same stand of birches as the one I posted the other night (that's shown below) Above is a grouping that I believe is probably the same place.

I was also asked whether Gruppe "keyed" the whole painting to the bases of those trees. And I think he probably did. The contrast there and the importance off those areas lead me to believe that he probably started there and used that area as his "punchline" In each of these paintings it seems as if that area is real important.

Here is another picture of what I believe to be the same birches from the other side. This time it's a gray day. But there is again the same emphasis on the bases of the birches and the contrast in value and or color temperature there.

Color temperature usage in an Emile Gruppe painting

Emile Gruppe, probably painted along the Lamoille river in Jefforsonville, Vermont

There are a number of things that almost all workshop students need help understanding. A common one is color temperature. This One can take some work to understand! Their paintings are frequently all of a neutral temperature. That is, they are not selectively making some colors warm and others cool. They often record the hues in front of them as best as they can, sometimes better, sometimes worse. Often they get the value correct (or nearly so), but seldom do they authoritatively state the temperature of the note.

The Gruppe above is a good example of an artist effectively managing his warms and cools. Gruppe has "pushed" the color in this picture. One of the ways he has done this is to characterize the temperature of his various colors. Look at the warm light in the shadows of those birches, and in some passages like the lower parts of the right hand tree has thrown a cool (pthalo) blue in there. He gets a lot of color variety doing that and the painting looks fresh and exciting.

At the top of the painting the cool blue mountains act as a counter point to the warm birches. We see the birches strongly relieved by both the value and the color temperature of those mountains. That strong contrast is dynamic and makes a 'sweet spot" that catches a our eye. He no doubt saw this to some extent, but most certainly he installed most of it, knowing that it would look good. Because......

YOU CANNOT OBSERVE FINE COLOR INTO A PAINTING, IT MUST BE INSTALLED!

Just like design, color that is intentional and deliberate will trump dutifully recorded color. The artist is a poet, not a journalist, or worse an accountant.

Outside in warm light, you can expect the lights to be warm and the shadows cool, with hot reflected lights. If the light is cool ( or you choose to make it that way to suit your artistic purpose) you can expect the lights to be cool and the shadows warm.

Gruppe has chosen to do it both ways in this picture. He may have been inspired by the blue of the sky bouncing into the shadows from the sky itself or perhaps the river. He has played that up to get zing into his color. That made the pictures color more exciting.

Several places in this picture Gruppe has deliberately relieved an object of one color temperature against another of a radically different color temperature.

Above is a detail from the Gruppe that shows him playing this game. At A he has placed the cool shadow of the birch against a hot note of the limpid and Oncorhunchus mykiss infested waters.
At B The cool note of the water meets a warm streak of light defining the edge of the tree. And at C the cool shadow is again strongly contrasted with the hot note in the water. Notice how Gruppe has also painted the thin branches at the top of the painting hot against the cool color of the sky.

Value contrast can give "punch" to a painting, but playing your warms and cools against one another can too. Oh -do- dah- day!

More Seago and minimalism

© The Estate of Edward Seago, courtesy of Portland Gallery www.portlandgallery.com
Last night I wrote about Seagos use of very downplayed, restrained or "minimalist' color. Tonight I want to look at his shapes for the same thing. Making fine shapes is a root skill of design. Sago was a master of this in an era when that skill was common and highly prized. The fine arts arena was dominated by modern abstractionists who, like em or not, often understood well the making of fine shapes . But more importantly the great age of illustration was still going on, it wouldn't really die until the late 60's or so. Those guys really knew how to design and used fine shape making to get elegance, punch and appeal into their work. They had to design well, because their designs had to carry subjects like soap, girdles and kitchen ware that were not compelling images without some very creative arrangement.

While more interesting than a corset or cheese grater, this is still just a street scene and it would not be very interesting if it was presented in a matter of fact way. A straight photo of the scene would hardly draw our notice. Seago has "sold" us the picture with his dynamic treatment of it. The subject of the picture is his bold shapes and creative and expressive color.

IT IS NOT WHAT IT IS A PICTURE OF, BUT HOW IT IS A PICTURE OF THAT IS IMPORTANT!

As I have remarked before, that would make a dandy neck tattoo, maybe with some barbed wire and lightning bolts.

The shapes in the picture above are large, simplified almost to brutality and have great carrying power. Look at the right hand side of the picture. All of the buildings there are simplified into one big almost black shape. There are a few very subdued grey incursions back there, too subdued to break up the large forms, they are just enough to imply some variation in the structures back there. Then Seago hangs that white oval sign right on top of them. That's an attention grabber and an elegant exclamation point in the design of the painting.

Up in the right hand corner the roof top contains another passage made of the same elements, a big dark decorated by similarly reduced gray shapes.

The windows in the central white building are all different. No two are alike.If you squint at the picture you can see the pattern of darks formed by windows, dormers, shadows and lawn dart legged people. Seago is using a decorative pattern formed of deliberately unique and dissimilar shapes to grab our attention and then entertain our eye as we course through the painting examining them. There is a lot of variation for us to perceive and it holds us a long time as we examine them. That is one of the goals of great shapemaking, holding the viewers attention for as long as possible. Badly designed paintings are used up in an instant. We see all there is to see and move on on search of something more interesting. Seagos shapes are wild, unexpected, individual, and interesting above all.

Notice the pattern that Seago throws across the top of the painting with all of the differently shaped rectangular chimneys superimposed on the sky. Look at the negative shapes in the sky, the "lights". Again it might help to squint at them. Each shape of the bright sky is totally different from its brethren. they all have different areas (in the geometrical sense). There is a big One on the right, a small one in the middle, and a medium sized unit on the right. That's variety and Seago made that happen. He installed that! Every boundary of these shapes has a different angle and little chimney pots and the corners of dormers give even more variety and lace like crenelations to the edges of the shapes of the sky that shows through the apertures between those black chimneys.

Though there is a shadow across the foreground it merely decorates the larger shape of the road, not subdivides it into two smaller areas. He has kept the shape of the road BIG. Part of the skill of an accomplished designer is keeping shapes large rather than chopping them up. Variations within the large shapes are subordinated to the larger whole.

Gee, thats was not the easiest thing to describe! I hope you could follow all of that.

Minimalist color in a Seago

© The Estate of Edward Seago, courtesy of Portland Gallery www.portlandgallery.com


My friend Renee just posted a bunch of Seago paintings I don't guess I can link to a Facebook page because of the friend thing. I grabbed one, almost at random to write about. It is such a fine one!

Seagos are minimalist, they are from the same time as the stripped down architecture that followed the second world war. They are still traditional painting but they are spare, reduced and simplified to the essentials. They are a different possible take on minimalism. Tonight I will talk about his minimalist color.

Seagos color is reduced in this painting to almost black and white, the other colors are dull and earth colors. He uses very little chroma in any color. They are all desaturated. But they are beautiful in their subtle restraint. He used a simple palette that had earth colors and a chrome yellow (rather like a weak cadmium yellow) vermilion (a warm red somewhat like cadmium red but less strident, it is the color in the lips and cheeks of old portraits ) and viridian He has varied his color temperatures to make them interesting. Good color is not the number of different colors you can use, or their brightness or assertiveness. It is an intelligent arrangement founded on the way those colors relate to one another. The best pianist isn't necessarily the one who can pound the loudest.

Notice the cool color in the light of the house in the middle, the shadow under its eaves contrasts with that by it's warmth. All over this painting dull colors are enlivened by the play of warm and cool hues.

On the first floor of that building are two shops, one red and the other green. They are the most "colored"notes in the entire painting. In most paintings they would look dull and muddy. But every color looks the way it does only in the context of the other colors around it. These reds and greens are surrounded by grays and blacks. Dull as these two shop front notes are, they are gay in comparison to their surroundings. Probably each is partially knocked down by the admixture of the other. They fit together perfectly because grave as they are, the relate to one another.To their right is a third shop, or just a wall, that is made from a pattern of both notes from the other two. There is a progression from a dull red to a dull green to a combination of the two together. That didn't just happen, because as I have said before;

NOTHING GOOD GETS INTO A PICTURE BY ACCIDENT!

Seago made that happen, he decided to make that intelligent and beautiful arrangement because the progression across those tones would be appealing. Most of the viewers would know they liked that part of the painting but not know why. They didn't have to know why for it to work on them, any more than they would have to know what key a tune is in to like hearing it. But the musician who wrote the tune knew and chose that key to make his song "work".

Seago repeats the dull red in that Zamboni ( or whatever that shape is) parked on the sidewalk at the right. The buildings roof has those colors laced into it also. The cool notes in the light struck building at the center contain the green, and the building on the left s a gray containing the red note.The sky has the same dull red dull green pattern hidden there too.

The picture is a black and white warp into which is woven a weft of dull red and green. This is completely arbitrary, he installed those colors. I expect there were some colors actually there that inspired his caprice, but the color in this painting is decorative and not observed. He has made an arrangement of very quiet subtle colors that set one another off, embedded in a field of gray and black.

I think I could probably write more about minimalism in Segos work in my next post because it is in his shapes and design too.

Messages from a friend who died last night

A Paul Goodnow water gilded 23 carat gold leafed, handmade scraffito cornered, Florentine, closed cornered frame and his own painting. This is about as fine as framing gets.

• My dear friend Paul Goodnow, framer and artist, died last night. He died at his easel. painting, late at night. I hope that happens to me too. I am in shock. It is hard to believe he is just gone. How does that work? One day they are here and the next they are not? I can't believe I will never see him again or hear his ridiculous wise guy Rhode Island accent. He was a true friend to me and we went on many painting trips together. Since we both snore, we were always assigned to the same room. We painted together on a Willard Metcalf site in Cornish, New Hampshire this fall. It never crossed our minds that it would be our last and final goodbye. .
  
• One of the things I have done today is to go back and reread some of our facebook messages. Here is a string of them. I hope you can get a feel for the guy he was from reading these. Some of them are a little rough, I apologize to those of you who are weak, self righteous toads, judgmental and ostentatiously over sensitive martinets, but here they are just the same. Portions have been redacted for brevity and content.
• Goodnow">

  November 13, 2009

  Paul Carter Goodnow

  • When we would go out painting I was the framer but what now ? When you speak of framing , am I the painter? I wasn't forgiving you right away, but I do now .

• November 20, 2009

  Paul Carter Goodnow

  • hedgehog

    Do Hedgehogs eat barns? Keep him away anyhow . The Woodpecker has a girlfriend and seems to have lost interest in destroying the barn .
    

• Stapleton Kearns">

  November 20, 2009

  Stapleton Kearns

  • He is now putting the wood pecker to his girlfriend instead of your barn.

• Goodnow">

  January 2, 2010

  Paul Carter Goodnow

  I stopped filling the holes at this point but he hasn't been around in about two weeks , maybe more . I have about two cords or more of logs he could go to town on but no.....

• 
  
• Stapleton Kearns">

  January 19, 2010

  Stapleton Kearns

  • Paul will you grab my two paintings while you are there too, please? I will see if I can get God to replace your hair.
    ...............Stape

• Stapleton Kearns">

  June 10, 2010

  Stapleton Kearns

  • Paul;
    I don't know what the deal is with that. Its not my birthday. It is some weird face book glitch I guess.
    

• June 11, 2010

  Paul Carter Goodnow

  • turning thirty nine is no big deal Stape , I am almost there myself

• Stapleton Kearns">

  June 11, 2010

  Stapleton Kearns

  • 59 is not old if you are a tree!

• Goodnow">

  June 12, 2010

  Paul Carter Goodnow

  • Thats why I have gotten wider as I grow older , merely to accommodate the rings ." Big Baby Davis " The occasional obligatory sports reference.

• Stapleton Kearns">

  June 12, 2010

  Stapleton Kearns

  • . Go Seltz!

• Goodnow">

  June 12, 2010

  Paul Carter Goodnow

  • 34 years married today

• 
  

  July 18, 2010

  Paul Carter Goodnow

  • and what is your stance on trading vehicles for paintings?

• Stapleton Kearns">

  July 18, 2010

  Stapleton Kearns

  • Depends on the vehicle. I took in a 76 T-bird once. Great car. Concealed headlights, wicked fast!
    

• Goodnow">

  July 18, 2010

  Paul Carter Goodnow

  • I like the names you come up with in your blog , good thing your wife named the kids. Always entertaining and informative . was that a 390 or a 429 in the t-bird? Remember the sunbeam tiger with the 289 or 302s, my neighbor had one a few years back , bodies rusted horribly but .... My first Car was a Cougar 1967 , second was a 69 Ford Cortina remember those?

• 
  
• Stapleton Kearns">

  August 29, 2010

  Stapleton Kearns

  • I know you figured this out, but I don't use Kims name on facebook. Believe it or not he has to keep a low profile, there are weirdos out there when you are a rock and roll hero. Who knew? I know Brittany has problems. I think Taylor Swift is the most talented young woman in show business t0day!
    

• Goodnow">

  September 18, 2010

  Paul Carter Goodnow

  • saw Kim playing one of these in the videos . This one is mine but the major difference is that he can play his .

  • 
• 

  October 29, 2010

  Paul Carter Goodnow

  • Cool that you got to paint with Marc Hanson . He told me Stape said you were a good guy , Susan Lammers said pretty much the same thing before . I started thinking , nice that Stape says that but what is it that I am doing that people have to ask that question? I told Susan that you are the glue that holds everyone together . You are like everywhere and everyone knows you . And of course they all like you too , that is important . Get your six by eights ready for Rockport . Drop off is on the 16th .

• 

  October 29, 2010

  Paul Carter Goodnow

  • big orange hat!

• 

  October 29, 2010

  Stapleton Kearns

  • You are a good guy. But I told them you were an irascible prick.

• 

  October 31, 2010

  Paul Carter Goodnow

  • Stape you are the reason the Patriots sent randy Moss to Minnesota , just so that we could keep you here . That guy didn't catch a break, grew up down south went to Minnesota first then California , then New England , now back to Minnesota . That has to be like the sauna to the cold dip tub and back etc. Glad you like it here . I hope I get to paint in Vermont with you guys , maybe it works out that we get the regulars all together this year at some point . side note :Deer tick got me good man , looks like antibiotics are in the near future .

• 

  November 1, 2010

  Stapleton Kearns

  • Is he related to Sterling Moss?
    So you got Lymes. I am always paranoid about that. Maybe I have it too I certainly am at risk. Hope you have a speedy recovery.
    ........Stape

• 

  November 1, 2010

  Paul Carter Goodnow

  • Gotten bitten anyway , and there was an infection or at least a red circle so antibiotics is the next step. I saw the doc and it is two pills a day for 14 days . Just worth taking the measures they recommend because the disease can be bad . I was thinking about you guys that are out all the time , good news is that the frost ends the threat so .... I found out I have high blood pressure and I told the doctor that maybe the tick had it and gave it to me. I hate deerticks as much as Woodpeckers , well maybe more at least the woodpeckers haven't directly attacked me .

• 

  November 1, 2010

  Paul Carter Goodnow

  • Wasn't Sterling Moss a German test pilot or ace or something?

• November 5, 2010

  Paul Carter Goodnow

  • I am taking the antibiotics for 14 days , it seems that the situation is pretty common so be on the lookout next season and all you need to do is see the doc and get the pills if they do bite . If you don't and it is Lyme disease it can be very serious . I was out filling woodpecker holes in the barn so it is another woodpecker related incident! I tacked a black plastic bag on the back of the barn and so far no more attacks . Happy painting man.

• 

  November 26, 2010

  Paul Carter Goodnow

  • TM and I were wondering if we will be able to get you to go to Vermont in about January when we go because of your celebrity status . happy for you having such a big following but hoping that it doesn't mean you won't be able to go then , would be nice to get the gang together . I think it will be my one trip up there .

• 

  November 26, 2010

  Stapleton Kearns

  • Probably, Whats the date?

• 

  December 27, 2010

  Paul Carter Goodnow

  • going to Vermont in January with us , right? Or am I going with you?

• 

  December 27, 2010

  Stapleton Kearns

  • You will do as you are told

• 
  

  January 24, 2011

  Stapleton Kearns

  • I keep hearing about powerball. Is that a sport too?

• 

  January 25, 2011

  Paul Carter Goodnow

  • I believe it is for some . Mostly it seems to be an expensive hobby , kind of like painting is for many of us.

• 

  February 1, 2011

  Paul Carter Goodnow

  • I try not to be a follower but logic wins out sometimes , I had tried the walnut oil , and still use the medium sometimes and have titanium white graham paint , which I like , then a year or so later when we were painting in Vermont you were using the Liquin . I tried it one time when I couldn't get the walnut oil knowing that you liked it . I got hooked on it and am even using it mixed with oil color to do some finishes on frames . I guess it is good to have all the info you can because even if reluctant at first ..... I can see the liquin in the picture of you painting . They should give you endorsements .

• 

  February 1, 2011

  Stapleton Kearns

  • Paul;
    The walnut oil is good too, but I worry about all of the warnings on the bottle about flammability.
    Is Tony Francona right about Becket?
    ........................Stape

• 

  February 1, 2011

  Stapleton Kearns

  • The only color that RGH makes that I am not totally happy with is their Cobalt violet. I get mine from Gamblin now
    ...........................Stape

• 

  February 1, 2011

  Paul Carter Goodnow

  • Wow Stape you have added new names to the repertoire , now we have Carl Crawford and Adrian Gonzalez added as well . So you mean that a rag with walnut oil must be highly flammable even more so than another medium ? that would be a concern for sure . I empty wastebasket once a week now . that 11x14 that you did in the fall in Vermont finished drying out with a gloss and hasn't needed varnishing at all , pretty impressive in that regard , love the painting too. I tend to use the Liquin now anyway but thanks for mentioniung the volatility .

• 

  February 1, 2011

  Paul Carter Goodnow

  • Ah Yes speaking on volatility , The Tampa Bay Rays haver chosen to ignore the volatlity of our old friend Manny Ramirez (Manram to his closest friends) and they gave him a contract so he will be facing the Red sox this season . They still haven't signed Alex Katz however.

• 

  February 23, 2011

  Paul Carter Goodnow

  • Hey Stape when someone says a woman's face has character aren't they really saying something else in a roundabout way? Mens faces can have character and it doesn't mean they are ugly .

• 

  February 23, 2011

  Stapleton Kearns

  • It depends on their inflection. Watch their eyes.

• 

  February 23, 2011

  Paul Carter Goodnow

  • If it gets to 5.00 a gallon you might have to be taking weight out of the trunk of the Lincoln or installing a sail or something . I have an 8 cylinder in the truck , fortunately I can't afford to think about changing vehicles so that makes that decision easy. We need something that will run on old turpentine and urine for the long painting trips . If only more scientists were pleinaire painters ....

• 

  February 23, 2011

  Stapleton Kearns

  • The gas isn't such a big deal. You would have to burn a loy of gas to recoup the cost of replacing a vehicle. I just got a 96 Honda Civic. Looks clean, runs like a top. That should cut our fleet average. I think it gets 40 mpg. I got a deal on it because it was old and had a stick. No one can drive a stick anymore.

• 
  

  February 24, 2011

  Paul Carter Goodnow

  • Price keeps going up need to find a gas station that takes paintings . How bout that Manny Ramirez? He won't go away now he is playing for the Tampa Bay Rays.

• 

  March 3, 2011

  Paul Carter Goodnow

  • seems like it . There is lots of money for them to fight over . As long as they don't all become painters while they are out of work .

• 

  March 10, 2011

  Paul Carter Goodnow

  • I often wish I could go back and listen more to the details in the stories that my Dad told . Can't get enough of that now after it is too late , Great that you listened well , your memories keep him alive . I used to get bored hearing some things then , now they would be treasures to hear again . My dad had a heart attack in my chair in my kitchen while I was making him coffee and My wife , Sister and Brother in law were sitting with him . He had a triple bypass years before but you never expect it so sudden and I tried to revive him but he was just gone . Only 66 . I miss him and it feels good to miss him as I am sure you miss your Dad and always will . I didn't get to spend the time you had with your Dad near the end and I am sure he heared every word you said to him when you were there and knew you were there , all worthwhile time well spent . That story was beautifully done .

• 

  April 24, 2011

  Paul Carter Goodnow

  • Hey , I actually have to buy the gold if you think about it . I have started using RgH now too though I haven't loaded tubes yet.. I wanted to tell you that after seeing three of his paintings , I totally get what you ask the question for but it should be "whats the deal with Alex Katz buyers?"

• 

  May 25, 2011

  Paul Carter Goodnow

  • I saw something about shellac being from tree resin or something , I was remembering it being from the secretions of the lac bug . Seriously if it isn't shellac it is lacquer but they actual say that in one of the reference books , that stuck with me , not that I was going to go looking for lac bugs to coax out their secretions or anything . Well I bought the RGH now I have been forgetting to buy the tubes and they have been sitting in their jars but I will be using them soon . I sometimes look at the pretty colors when I am squeezing out the Windsor Newton so that is a start. Still using Liquin , I really like that stuff .

• 

  May 25, 2011

  Paul Carter Goodnow

  • I found myself using the Zinser on panels sometimes too , I had a gallon and after reading it said "sounds like great stuff . "

  • wish I could remember this exactly but there was a study by norwegians I believe it was , that found that going to museums and plays was good for your health . I mean it was doctors that did the study . Was on the news yesterday wish I had recorded it but it must be somewhere on the internet .

• 

  May 25, 2011

  Stapleton Kearns

  • Norwegians are very nice, but you can't go by their statistics.

• 

  May 26, 2011

  Paul Carter Goodnow

  • And what of their furniture?

• 

  June 16, 2011

  Paul Carter Goodnow

  • How bout them Bruins?

• 

  June 17, 2011

  Stapleton Kearns

  • What Bruins are those

• 

  June 17, 2011

  Paul Carter Goodnow

  • winners of the stanley cup , Boston bruins . I was just bringing you your sports moment for the month of june . Hope everything is going well, Paul

• 

  July 4, 2011

  Paul Carter Goodnow

  • I too have come to see the need for the cheap but decent frames and will be gathering up the damaged omegas returned from shows to metal leaf and recycle them . I was just looking at a 16x24 Strisk "driftwood"frame because I won't have time to make one for a show . The frame came off his painting to give way to a nice goldleaf one when I sold the painting. Now suddenly the driftwood has new appeal.

• 

  August 8, 2011

  Paul Carter Goodnow

  • Happy Birthday! 59 years young

• 

  August 8, 2011

  Stapleton Kearns

  • and not dead!

• 

  August 9, 2011

  Paul Carter Goodnow

  • Always better that way, in fact I believe at least four out of five doctors recommend that!

  Goodbye Paulie