Research Point

The artists we are asked to research have very distinctive styles of applying paint.

Clause Monet’s paint application became much looser throughout this career.  He is most famous for his impressionist works and his later works of his garden at Giverney.  His most famous impressionist works are created by applying short “flicky” strokes of paint, either wet in wet or by scumbling (applying wet dabs over dry paint).  This works by optically mixing the paint on the canvas and so give his works a soft feel as there are very few hard lines or edges.  When applying paint by the scumbling method, this also adds texture to the canvas as well as breaking up the further dabs of paint which are applied over the previous layers.  As Monet aged and his eyesight began to fail, he concentrated on painting the familiar scenes of his Japanese garden and waterlillies in his garden at Giverney.  These later paintings have the paint applied much more loosely, using much larger strokes and wording on a larger, overall scale.  See below two impressionistic paintings and one of his later paintings which demonstrate his techniques.

The Seine at Vetheuil (1879)

On the Cliff at Pourville (1882)

Corner of apond with waterlilies (1918)

Van Gogh’s paint is very thick and textural, to the point of creating a three dimensional image which creates its own shadows and highlights, irrespective of the colour of paint applied.  One thing which stands out about Van Gogh is the way that he paints as he draws with ink – very thick, staccato strokes, heavy outlines, hatching (both with colour and highlights).  He also uses these very deliberate strokes to emphasise other shapes and to lead us to the focal point of the painting.  Paintings which typify this approach are:

Wheatfieldwith Reaper

Self-portraitwith felt hat – directional strokes around the head creating a framing, halo effect.

CrownImperial Fritillaries in a Copper Vase (use of hatching strokes to denote form and highlights)

Paul Cezanne, a contemporary of Van Gogh, has a very different, but equally distinctive style, again emphasising the surface texture of the paint using visible brushstrokes.  (The Chateau de Medan) Cezanne applied regular and even sized brushstrokes across the canvas, in parallel oblong blocks of colour.  Cezanne did not use one of the devices of perspective, that of altering the size of this brushwork to create depth, so instead he relied more heavily on aerial perspective and colour change.  In his later years, he simplified his style even further, leaving more areas of bare canvas, and applying the colour in larger blocks, with more vertical strokes, in a more abstract style (Route Tournante)