The Devouring Atmosphere

Carl Sandburg described the quiet fog coming in on cat’s paws. It slips in hiding certainty under its luminous veil. Fog gives the soft caress of ambiguity. Squint at words on a page or letters on a keyboard. They gently  blur into disappearance. Artists exploit the character of mist to enhance  suggestion.  Look closely at this Homer Dodge Martin painting of the 1860’s (example 1), a traditional and radiant  Hudson River Valley painting. At first glance we read it as detailed, full of specifics. Upon close inspection Martin shows us how the mist of the mountains can provide a mask of suggestion. We think we see a forest, trees, mountainsides. It’s all living beneath the suggestion of the glaze of fog as you can see in this close-up detail ( example 2).  Paintings like this were developed in the studio from sketches, memories of places and memories of other paintings.

example 1. Homer Dodge Martin.

example 2. detail of Martin painting.

When Richard Parkes Bonington traveled in France he sketched quickly  in oil and watercolor. Example 3 shows a small 1826 oil sketch of his experience in front of the Rouen Cathedral. The lack of specificity suggests the obfuscating effects of a luminous sunlit morning fog. The ambiguity offered here could easily be reinterpreted to be a set of more modern vertical urban buildings.

example 3. Richard Parkes Bonington.

Borrowing Bonington’s bravura brushwork and the suggestibility of fog over a city I proceeded with examples 5 and 6.  Example 5 is an oil on white enameled anodized aluminum,  48×48. Example 6 is an oil on copper, 36×36.  These were preceded by my work in Photoshop of an image of Times Square, example 4.  I took several images and layered them together then, I painted over the resulting photo with oil paints using brushes, fingers and a squeegee. I used this photo as a point of departure for developing the two painting examples.

example 4. manipulated photo.

example 5. oil on aluminum.

example 6. oil on copper.

The tone  and suggested hour of an image can change by increasing the fog and altering its color as you see in examples 7 and 8.

example 7. some atmosphere.

example 8. more atmosphere.

For me, a painting frequently evolves in favor of simplicity through atmospherics. Let’s begin with a small plein air oil sketch and my palette( example 9). I then took a photo of the setting (example 10). The next examples are of a larger version the painting in a progression toward more atmosphere( examples 11 and 12).

example 9. plein air oil.

example 10. later photo.

example 11. step one.

example 12. step two.

I call them steps one and two because I don’t know if I am finished.

In the last set of examples I begin with a photo(example 13). The following steps reveal another progression toward simplicity through atmospheric addition ( examples 14,15,and 16).

example 13. photo.

example 14. step one.

example 15. step two.

example 16. step three.