Post by Lucy Badger
Le jardin au basset
I really like the brush strokes and colours. A very pleasing scene.
Le jardin au basset
5 comments > view / add
Last
This is my attempt to copy a garden painting by Bonnard. It's on oil painting paper 23cm X 30cm using water mixable oils. The original is 44cm X 53 cm. I copied it from the book "Bonnard at Le Cannet but couldn't reproduce the vibrant yellow in the book illustration using Cadmium yellow pale Hue. Perhaps the clue is in "pale"and maybe I need to invest in more than one yellow!
5 comments > view / add
Post by Alice Walker
Bonnard's BassetI don't know that particular painting by Bonnard Chris, but I do think you have captured some of his style in the soft loose brush strokes and strong Mediterranean hues.Yellow is a difficult colour with oils because it can get dirtied by other colours very easily and is not as opaque as we would sometimes wish. Sometimes this can be mitigated by adding white first and then when the white layer is completely dry then adding yellow. However I think you are probably right about the pale cadmium yellow. So my suggestion is it would be worth adding another thickish layer of yellow onto of the insufficiently bright yellow once the previous layers are 110% dry. I'd be interested to hear what else you picked up in the process.The basset hound is very nicely painted -it seems Bonnard was quite fond of Bassets!1 commentReply to
Learning from BonnardIt was very interesting to attempt to copy Bonnard. I started off with stiff brushes then realised this was not working so reverted to soft brushes which made it easier to copy his style. He also appears to leave part of the painting in very diluted oils possibly to give the effect of distance. The deep red at the top of the painting is repeated in flecks of the same colour throughout the painting which somehow adds to the painting.Although the painting looks spontaneous the composition is well thought out with the dark areas all linking up.
I found that I had to keep cleaning my brush after brush strokes to stop the colours getting too mixed. This is not my normal habit which is probably why my colours end up muddy!
I will have a go with the yellow as suggested.
1 commentReply to
Re: Learning from BonnardThat's really interesting to hear about the brushes Chris -they make much more of a difference than you would perhaps think. I have so many brushes and mostly end up using two or three favourites. I often end up using a soft nylon brush for oils rather than a stiff Hoghair one.It is almost always the case with these masters of paintings that they make something appear quite casual and spontaneous (which is appealing) but actually there is a very deliberate plan at work which one often only discovers through hours of careful studying and observation of the painting. It makes sense of the whole apprenticeship model which is no longer the thing in Fine art.