New copy, "Cottage Scenery" by George Caleb Bingham

"Cottage Scenery" by George Caleb Bingham

I finally made it back to the National Gallery after a hiatus of several months. I was planning to return in April, but I got Covid and it took me until May 1st to get healthy and feel up to the task.

I chose "Cottage Scenery" (1845) by George Caleb Bingham, because when I paint outdoors, I like to include buildings or other man-made elements in the landscape. This painting isn't very large (25 1/5 x 30 in), so I stretched a canvas measuring 17 x 20 in. This was as close as I could get to the exact proportions (height x width) of the original, which is very important to me, and makes it easier to copy.

I started from scratch with a completely blank canvas. For the first couple of hours, I measured and re-measured, holding a brush at arm's length and sighting down my straight arm with one eye closed, so as to get accurate measurements. I chose a "unit" of measurement, such as the distance between the left side of the house and the left side of the painting, and, holding that distance between the end of my brush and the tip of my thumb, counted how many times that distance would go into the width of the painting. I did the same with the distance between the right side of the house and the right side of the painting, the bottom of the house and the bottom of the painting, the roof and the top of the painting, the fence, the trees, the distant horizon, and so on. To make things more confusing, things didn't always fall into neat categories like "halves" or "thirds", although some of the distances seemed to be "quarters".  I sketched the placement of the different elements with a thin line drawing in paint, and as I adjusted and readjusted, I wiped off and repainted the lines. This process took a couple of hours, and was a little frustrating, but I also realized that I was in my happy place. (I love solving puzzles!) When I was finally satisfied that everything was in about the right place, I could begin to block in the colors. Unfortunately, I was so in the zone that I forgot to take a picture of the drawing phase. Arrggh! Oh well.

I already had some piles of color that I had mixed before I started measuring. I had some of the reddish-brown of the ground, the dark green of the trees, the light gray of the clouds, and the blue of the sky, as well as the lighter areas where the light is hitting the ground and the house. I don't use any earth colors such as burnt siena or yellow ochre - instead, I make rich neutrals by mixing colors such as cadmium orange and violet, which makes a beautiful red-brown. I started to rough these colors in, to cover up the white of the canvas and get the different colors next to each other so I could start to adjust and refine them. I didn't get very far before it was time to go to lunch. I took a photo, and that's when I realized I had forgotten to get a picture of the drawing phase.

As far as I got at lunchtime

After a nice lunch in the National Gallery's cafeteria with my Copyist friends, I got to work finishing blocking in the colors and covering up the white of the canvas. You can't really tell if the colors are correct until you get the colors in place around them. I did a lot of readjusting and finally felt like I had done enough for the first day. I didn't get to the figures that are sitting and standing around the door of the cottage. I was concentrating on the large areas of color and light. I can see where I will need to make corrections in value (dark/light), but overall I'm fairly happy with the start of this copy. I'm looking forward to getting more details around the windows, fence, and figures. There are even tiny cows in the distance! Hope to be back next Thursday! Thank you for reading!

Day 1, copy after "Cottage Scenery" by George Caleb Bingham

Click on the images for a larger view

Day Four and Final, Copy after "Plum Brandy" by Edouard Manet

Well, I somehow neglected to post after my last visit to the NGA to work on this painting, which was on October 31. November went by, and yesterday I finally made it back to wrap it up. Here is my copy in its final form. Not perfect by any means, but as far as I want to go.

I mainly worked on the hand that is holding the cigarette, clarifying the darks and lights and adjusting the colors. A foreshortened hand is one of the hardest things to draw correctly, so I concentrated on getting the shapes right, trying to see the thing abstractly. I'm reasonably happy with it - it doesn't look as much like a flipper as it did earlier! 

I also worked on the dress, adding the detail in the cuff and working on the lacy stuff in the front. I'm aware that my colors are darker than Manet's, but I didn't want to go back in and adjust everything. I tried to get the colors in the right ballpark. So much "pink"! The color of the dress and the color of her skin are so close, but slightly different. The dress is a cooler pink, so I used a cooler red to mix it - quinacridone red, and I used cadmium red in the skin. But wait, the skin also seems yellower, so there's some of that. At this point, I kind of gave up and acknowledged that it was as close as I had the energy to get. 

Quite a few museum visitors came over to tell me how good my copy was, so I guess it's not too glaringly different. Of course I see where it falls short, but it's good enough. My main interest was in her pose, and I feel that I was able to capture her weariness after a long day's work. This is how I feel after a day at the National Gallery!

I turned in my permit for this painting, but I haven't selected what I'll do next. I may take some time off during the month of January, but will let you know when I am back at it! Thank you for reading.

As always, click the images for a larger view. 

You can see my earlier copies by scrolling down the column on the right.