How to Paint Like Turner E-Book

• Herausgeber: Tate Publishing
• Kategorie: Geisteswissenschaft
• Sprache: Englisch
• Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2015

Seitenzahl: 153

Beschreibung

JMW Turner is one of the greatest artists Britain has ever produced. His watercolours, with their extraordinary effects of shifting light and dramatic skyscapes, are especially highly regarded. For the first time, the secrets of Turner's technique are revealed, allowing present-day watercolourists to learn from his achievements.This book combines unrivalled knowledge of Turner's working methods from Tate curators and conservators with practical advice from some of the world's most respected watercolour experts. Twenty-two thematic exercises are illustrated with Turner's works. Expert contemporary watercolourists explain, step-by-step, how to paint a similar composition, learning from Turner's techniques. Packed with invaluable information, from the materials Turner used to achieve the masterpieces we know and love today, to the modern materials the twenty-first-century watercolour artist will need.Backed by the authority of Tate, the world centre for Turner scholarship, with a glossary of technical terms, this is an invaluable resource both for lovers of Turner's art and of watercolour painting.

Leseprobe

How to Paint like Turner

Edited by Nicola Moorby and Ian WarrellWith artists Mike Chaplin and Tony Smibert

Tate Publishing

Contents

Foreword by Rosalind Mallord Turner, great-great niece of J.M.W. Turner

Getting to Know Turner

Introduction

Turner’s Training

Turner’s Library

Turner as Watercolourist

Turner as Teacher

Turner’s Materials

A Brief History of Watercolour Paints

Turner’s Use of Colour

Turner’s Yellows

Mixing to Create Tonal Ranges: Green and Purple

Brushes, Palettes and Drawing Implements

Paper

Sketchbooks

Getting Started

Modern Materials You Will Need

Introduction to Watercolour

Learning from Turner

Sky

Water

Fire

Trees

Buildings

People and Animals

Mountains

Sunrise and Sunset

Moonlight

Chronology

Glossary

Select bibliography

Contributors andacknowledgements

‘Copy first the works of God, and then the works of Turner.’

Edward Lear

Foreword

J.M.W. TurnerThe Blue Rigi, Sunrise 1842Watercolour on paper29.7 x 45Tate

Recently, at the adult education art group that I regularly attend, it was suggested by the teacher that for the following week we should find reference material with the view to creating our own abstract painting. Being a watercolour artist with an eye for detail, abstraction is not my preferred form of painting. However, my great-great-uncle, J.M.W. Turner, came to my rescue. I have always found you can learn so much from studying his work and on this occasion I decided to create my own version of one of my favourite pictures, The Blue Rigi, Sunrise. I know Lake Lucerne in Switzerland well and have seen for myself the magic of the colours and moods of the Rigi Mountain beside the lake. With the aid of a postcard reproduction, I set to work. Although my first point of inspiration was Turner’s famous watercolour, I was not making a strict copy. Instead, I used my own photographs to create a strong composition with the mountain at the centre. The colours were based upon my imagination and memory. However, I studied Turner’s distinctive method of applying paint carefully and used a similar technique to create soft, abstracted forms. The addition of a boat and some birds in the foreground provided a final ‘Turneresque’ detail.

When my art master came to view my work, his comment was ‘you can’t go wrong when you take a lesson from the Old Masters’. Studying the works of Turner is a great way to learn and develop. I hope this book helps you to find the same rewards and sense of personal achievement.

Rosalind Mallord Turner

Getting to Know Turner

Introduction

J.M.W. TurnerSelf-Portrait c.1799Oil on canvas74.3 x 58.4Tate

Probably painted on the occasion of his election as an Associate of the Royal Academy in 1799, Turner’s only adult self-portrait shows a well-dressed young man with an intense, self-assured gaze.

J.M.W. Turner (1775–1851) is one of the giants of art history. Unquestionably one of the greatest painters of landscape the world has ever seen, his work bridges the gap between the classical perfection of the Old Masters and the progressive movements of the modern era such as Impressionism and Abstract Expressionism. Although his name has become synonymous with the use of dazzling colour, experimental form and daring conceptual innovation, his professional life encompassed an astonishing breadth of activity, exploring themes from history, classical mythology, literature and contemporary events, all of which he explored through his chosen genre of landscape. Above all, he is celebrated for his creative approach to the problem that dominated his life’s work, the effective depiction of light.

Turner was a most versatile practitioner, proficient in drawing, painting and printmaking. He was as comfortable producing tiny book illustrations as large exhibition canvases, and it was this diverse range of skills, combined with his prodigious talent and boundless ambition, which formed the basis for his phenomenal success as an artist. What really set him apart from other artists, however, was his original and inventive approach to technique. Turner’s methods were unique. He refused to be restricted by conventional working practices and instead followed the dictates of his imagination. As his friend, the artist and diarist Joseph Farington, put it, he had ‘no systematic process’ when painting, but constantly varied his tactics until he reached a solution that ‘expresses in some degree the idea in his mind’. This technical ingenuity was evident in his use of oil paint, particularly his willingness to try new products, and the unorthodox way in which he manipulated and applied pigment. However, his most progressive achievements were developed and sustained in his watercolour paintings, in which he not only forged new systems of painting, but actually transformed the very appearance and status of the medium itself. More than any other artist, he mastered a synthesis between its intrinsic characteristics and the effects that it could achieve, and this led the way in establishing watercolour as an autonomous, expressive art form. His paintings are revered as the pinnacle of accomplishment within the field, and continue to represent the standard against which watercolour artists are measured today.

About this book

According to Turner himself, the only secret to his artistic success was ‘damned hard work’. This book is intended to offer a rather more considered guide to the techniques and methods that underpin his work. It discusses the materials favoured by Turner during his lifetime and offers advice for the modern artist on finding suitable alternatives. Step-by-step demonstrations deconstruct some of his most commonly used watercolour techniques, while practical exercises based upon his approach offer insights that provide a starting point for individual creativity. The book is not intended to teach you merely how to copy his work, but also offers systems for developing your own painting technique in new and exciting ways. The most important lesson to be learned when painting like Turner is that art is about freedom of expression. As he himself said, no matter how much the artist takes from the world around him, creativity is ‘a stream that forces a channel for itself’.

Life

Turner’s story begins in Covent Garden, London, where he was born in April 1775. His father was a wig-maker and barber, and Turner’s earliest drawings were displayed in the window of his Maiden Lane shop. It soon became clear, however, that the boy was destined for greater things, and at the age of fourteen Turner was enrolled in the Royal Academy Schools to embark upon the requisite education of the professional artist. During the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, the Royal Academy played a vital role in the training of contemporary artists. It was the institution where artists studied, taught, exhibited and socialised, and Turner would remain involved with it for the rest of his life. It took him just ten years to graduate from student to Associate, and in 1802 he was elected a full Academician, the youngest artist ever to hold the position. He quickly established a name for himself as a painter of topographical views, and his early work is notable for its precocious mastery of subject and his penchant for naturalistic effects. He exhibited and sold both oils and watercolours, but it was the latter that were considered to be the most advanced and technically superior examples of their day.

In 1807, Turner was appointed Professor of Perspective at the Royal Academy, delivering lectures on the subject for more than twenty years. His interests should have earned him the job of Professor of Landscape, but in the nineteenth century such a post did not exist. Despite his loyalty to the Academy, he was not beyond subverting its authority in artistic matters. In 1804, frustrated at the limited opportunities for showing his paintings, he became one of the first artists to open his own private gallery to display his works. As his art matured, he demonstrated an increasing desire to challenge the accepted hierarchies, which prioritised historical subjects over landscape, and oil painting over watercolour. Although he continued to produce watercolours that were essentially topographical in nature, his original and virtuoso use of the medium elevated his views beyond mere description of place. Drawing on his own observations of the world, he painted landscapes glowing with atmospheric effects described through colour and form. His ambition knew no bounds and his watercolours reached heights of visual spectacle and emotional depth more usually associated with oil painting.

Turner also attempted to revolutionise the genre of landscape painting. In defiance of traditional theories, which asserted that landscape painting involved a mere recording of nature, he set about demonstrating that it could be a powerful and cerebral art form. In his hands, views with a biblical or mythological flavour acquired levels of meaning and drama to rival the most epic history paintings, and domestic pastoral locations such as the River Thames were recast as Arcadian idylls in the manner of Old Masters such as Claude Lorrain (c.1604/5–82). Turner formalised his doctrine in a published sequence of engravings, known as the Liber Studiorum (1807–19). Comprised of more than eighty images illustrating six different categories of landscape, the series represents a complete visual manifesto for the advancement of the genre. It was this multifaceted outlook that led his contemporary and fellow watercolourist, John Constable (1776– 1837), to describe him as having a ‘wonderful range of mind’.

Unlike Constable, who struggled to make a living from his art, success came easily to Turner. He became a wealthy man, earning enough to finance a second home built to his own design outside London in Twickenham, close to the River Thames. Although an early love affair led to the birth of two daughters, he preserved his independent status, living as a bachelor with only his devoted father for company. In contrast to Constable, who lived and worked in his native Suffolk, Turner was a restless soul who sought inspiration away from home. He had an insatiable thirst for travel. Other artists of his generation may have ventured further afield to the Americas, the Antipodes, or the Middle or Far East, but no one else travelled more widely or more frequently within Europe and the British Isles. In his twenties he established a pattern of working that continued throughout his life, embarking on a sketching tour during the summer that provided him with enough material to make finished works through the winter months. In addition to making the traditional artistic pilgrimages to Paris and Italy, he navigated more unfamiliar territories, exploring picturesque terrain such as the remoter reaches of Wales and Scotland, the Alps and the rivers of France and Germany. His standard method of working during his travels was to record his observations in sketchbooks, which could easily be carried around with him and could then form the basis for more developed paintings. The portable nature of watercolour meant that it was a more accessible medium for the travelling artist than oil paints. While Turner rarely painted outside, directly from the subject, watercolour proved a useful tool for tonal and colour additions to his pencil studies. Back at home in the studio, the material accumulated during these sketching campaigns provided a basis for finished compositions. Turner was a shrewd businessman who recognised the demands of market forces. To increase public exposure of his works he diversified into the lucrative market for black and white prints. Much of his output was devoted to the production of engraved pictorial series that catered to the tastes of the armchair tourist such as Picturesque Views in England and Wales (1827–38) or Turner’s Annual Tour of the Loire and Seine rivers (1832–5). Book illustrations for popular authors such as Samuel Rogers, Lord Byron and Walter Scott also made him a household name in his own lifetime.

John Linnell (1792–1882)Portrait study of J.M.W. Turner’s father, with a sketch of Turner’s eyes, made during a lecture 1812Pencil on paper18.7 x 22.5Tate

Turner’s father, William Turner, played an important supporting role in his son’s professional life, grinding paints, preparing canvases and staffing Turner’s private gallery in Harley Street in central London. He died in 1829 when Turner was 54.

Despite these commercially profitable activities, Turner’s commitment to independent, original artistic practice remained paramount and he was not afraid to produce challenging work, which invited a considerable amount of criticism. During ‘Varnishing Days’, the time set aside for minor adjustments prior to the opening of the annual Royal Academy exhibitions, he became known for dramatic and eccentric last-minute reworkings of a canvas, rather, as one commentator put it, like ‘a magician, performing his incantations in public’. Increasingly his landscapes exhibited an indistinctness that his contemporaries failed to comprehend. Although to a modern audience his most pioneering paintings are those where the haziness and intangibility of his technique provides a perfect vehicle for the insubstantiality of a subject, those same paintings, such as Snow Storm – Steam-Boat off a Harbour’s Mouth, were derided by contemporary critics for their unfinished appearance. Indeed, it was widespread negative criticism of this picture that inspired the artist and writer, John Ruskin (1819–1900), to champion the artist in his famous polemical publication, Modern Painters (1843). Yet although Turner’s oil paintings began to stack up unsold in the studio, appreciation of his watercolours remained undiminished. In later life, his search for inspirational scenery took him to Switzerland, where the combination of mountains, lakes and soft light provided him with the ideal subject for his vision. Late Swiss watercolours such as The Blue Rigi, Sunrise are essays in melting form and colour, transforming the art of landscape from the earthly to the realms of the metaphysical.

Turner also finally found peace at home. In the 1830s he discovered the pleasures of Margate, a seaside resort on the Kent coast whose unrivalled expanse of shoreline provided an ideal retreat from London. He found a boarding house near the pier that not only offered the perfect spot for observing the changing beauties of sea and sky, but also had a congenial and attractive landlady, Mrs Sophia Booth, twenty-three years his junior. She became Turner’s full-time companion, eventually moving with him permanently to Chelsea, where she acted as wife, housekeeper and studio assistant until the end of his days. She recalled his habit of rising early to witness the sunrise on the Thames and described his long working hours; he would even request drawing materials in the middle of the night when sleep eluded him.

Turner died in 1851. In 1775, few people witnessing his christening in his local church of St Paul’s, Covent Garden, would have guessed that this baby would become one of the most celebrated names in the history of art. Yet seventy-six years later, he was laid to rest in the crypt of St Paul’s Cathedral, as one of the great men of his age. His most enduring monument, however, is not to be found within Christopher’s Wren’s famous edifice, but rather a couple of miles upriver at Tate Britain, the home of the Turner Bequest. After Turner’s death in 1851 complications with his will led to the transfer to the nation of the entire contents of his studio. Comprised of hundreds of oil paintings, sketchbooks, and many thousands of drawings and watercolours, the Turner Bequest represents a unique artistic legacy and an insight into the working practices of a true genius of art. NM

J.M.W. TurnerSnow Storm – Steam-Boat off a Harbour’s Mouth exh.1842Oil on canvas91.4 x 121.9Tate

This was one of Turner’s most controversial paintings, with critics lampooning its portrayal of wind and water, and asserting that it was nothing but a mass of ‘soapsuds and whitewash’. John Ruskin, however, defended the work. He described it as ‘one of the very grandest statements of sea-motion, mist and light that has ever been put on canvas’, adding, ‘of course it was not understood; his finest works never are’.

Turner’s Training

This book is about learning how to paint by studying the work of another artist, a didactic exercise of which Turner himself would have thoroughly approved. His own artistic training was undertaken in a number of different ways. As a student at the Royal Academy Schools he followed a set curriculum of drawing from plaster casts of antique statues. When he gained sufficient proficiency in rendering musculature and figurative poses, he progressed to the Life Class, which offered further practice in drawing, but this time from living human models. This course of study succeeded in teaching a high standard of draughtsmanship as well as a thorough understanding of the human form. What was missing from the curriculum, however, was any schooling in how to paint, which was considered to be too manual a craft to be taught at such a distinguished academic level. Turner was obliged to find instruction from other quarters, and one way of doing this was to copy from the work of established artists. His study of stonework from the gateway at Battle Abbey, for example, is a colour exercise derived from an earlier watercolour by the eighteenth-century topographical painter, Michael Angelo Rooker (1746– 1801). Using part of Rooker’s composition as a starting point, Turner has perfected the process of building up a picture using one application of colour at a time, gradually moving through a scale of tonality from light to dark.

During the 1790s, Turner met Dr Thomas Monro, a physician who specialised in the treatment of mental illness. Chief among his clients was King George III, but one of his less illustrious patients was Turner’s own mother, whose incurable psychological problems led her to be committed to the Bethlem Hospital (the notorious Bedlam) in 1800, where Monro was a leading practitioner. Her affliction must have been a perpetual dark cloud over Turner’s adolescence, yet the silver lining in the situation was Monro’s extensive collection of drawings, prints and watercolours, which he made accessible to the budding artist. For many years, Turner and his fellow art student, Thomas Girtin (1775–1802), broadened their knowledge of pictorial composition and paint effects by close examination of these works. One artist in particular whom they admired was John Robert Cozens (1752–97), and Dr Monro paid the two youngsters two or three shillings a week and a supper of oysters, to produce copies after the originals. It was from Cozens’s Swiss and Italian views that Turner learned to create evocative and atmospheric scenes through soft and limpid watercolour washes.