The Sydney Laurence project: Getting started

Sydney Laurence (1865-1940) is a good subject for beginning landscape painters. His work is a combination of realism and impressionism. Often the main subjects of his paintings are presented in a realistic style and the secondary subjects are of impressionist style.

The subjects of his paintings are spectacular. He is best known for his paintings of Mt. McKinley. That sort of subject is great for the beginning painter because one can easily use his/her imagination in depicting the subject.

In addition many of his paintings are formulaic. There is a distinct foreground, middle ground and distant area in his paintings. Each area has an obvious subject. This sometimes can be confusing but it works.

Many images of his work are readily available on the Internet. They make excellent subjects for a student's interpretation.

For my first project I have chosen "Misty Morn" (c. 1919) as a subject. It is a 19 x 14 southern view of Mt. McKinley. The image presented here is a Photoshopped version of the original painting. It has been simplified for our purposes. The tonal values have been compressed and the foreground has been manipulated so that the study will truly be an original painting.

Notice that the painting has the three distinct zones common in Laurence's paintings. Each zone has an area of interest. In the original painting the artist had a lean-to structure and a man tending a fire in the foreground. They have been removed because that may be too complicated for a beginning painter.

More to come...