Zagreb Nocturnes
Since the days are so short here in Zagreb (and I’m losing my mornings to language classes), I’ve been trying my hand at plein air nocturnes lately.
The Bar at Zvijezda (2011). 20 x 30 cm, oil on panel.
Last winter I tried one nocturne of the small bar around the corner from my house. The idea was to sketch the composition in pencil and then begin the lay-in on site. However, for the bulk of the work, I had the painting upstairs in my studio and in the evenings (when I would walk the dog around the neighborhood) I would stop and try to memorized the view and then run back upstairs and paint from memory. It was like sight-sizing from a block away. The idea was based on the quote by Degas about memory drawing:
“If I were to open an academy I would have a five-story building. The model would pose on the ground floor with the first-year students. The most advanced students would work on the fifth floor.”
This year I’m more prepared. These new clip-on LED lights work very well, and have a much cooler light than the ones you could buy, years ago, when I last tried plein air landscape painting at night. The brand I’m using is Mighty Bright from Santa Barbara, CA and I have the two pronged ones they make for orchestra conductors. (Edit: As Jerry Campbell commented, these lights can be slightly blue. I also found myself compensating to knock down the oranges. Pushing the light right up to the canvas warms it up a bit, but if anyone one has a suggestion for a more neutral plein-air-at-night lighting solution, I’d love to hear it).
My set-up for nocturnes.
A second set of lights would be great as I don’t get enough light consistently across the panels and have to move the light to where I’m working.
Painting in the snow at night can be really cold. I wrote a post last winter on keeping warm, which you can read here.
Zagreb Cathedral Nocturne #1. 35 x 25 cm, oil on panel.
Zagreb Cathedral Nocturne #2. 30 x 20, oil on panel (unfinished).
The Central Train Station at Night. 25 x 35 cm, oil on panel.
More to come. In the meantime, here are a couple more from the heavy snows we’ve had this month in Zagreb.
Winter, Britanski Trg. 20 x 30 cm, oil on panel.
Mirogoj in the Snow. 30 x 40 cm, oil on panel.
Marc,
That is the same brand of light I use from my “jazz days”. Aren’t they great for Nocturnes!?
Another fine set of images showing your superb control of values and colour.
Kudos to you for not only painting at night but also in the snow. I could never handle that. Love all these-Mirogoj is my favorite. Bitter cold here in Maine right now. Thinking of those warm Tuscany landscapes which are more appealing at the moment.
Great and very inspiring!!!
These are fantastic, Marc! Very inspiring – thank you!
Beautiful work, Marc. And thanks for the tip on the double-headed light! I’ve used a variety of lights for nocturnes over the years, but this seems the best.
Hi Marc, great stuff! I am also a lover of painting at night, as you say the days are not long enough at this time of year. On the subject of painting from memory I had an amusing experience at a workshop I ran last year. I found that the students had very superficial memory indeed and could not remember even the simplest relationships/proportions in their paintings. I resorted to a game that I used to play with my sister as a child, of putting twenty objects on a tray, covered with a towel, and each player would have thirty seconds with the cloth removed to remember the objects on the tray. We used to call it Kim’s game or Pelmonism. Some of the students could only recall five or six items. When I played with my sister we could always get all twenty and used to break the tie by having to describe the objects, ie a “playing card” had to be five of spades, a “ring” had to be a ruby and diamond cluster etc. Now without realising it my sister and I were remembering the whole picture and the relationships of all the objects to each other whereas the students were trying to learn the names of the objects.
BTW these were all university students.
As an exercise I then painted a small demo with my back to the subject only looking every two or three minutes at the scene. This turned out to be a good way to explain how the block in of the big shapes in the right relationships laid the foundation for a sound structure into which the smaller elements could be placed as the painting progressed.
The students realised what I was getting at and their visual memory then improved quite fast. It just illustrated how observing in the right way is so crucial to painting and explains why some people struggle with what you and I might regard as basics.
On another note are you going to Ireland this year? I know you said you had a busy season ahead but I just wondered.
Best wishes
Mike
Beautiful paintings. Lovely rich brushstrokes and very clever use of colours. A pleasure to look at.
Marc these are delightful! Glad you are getting out in the cold to capture them. There too much beauty in the snowy land and cityscapes to stay inside and miss it!
Marc,
I enjoy painting nocturnes and have found a bicycle light that works very well for me.
It is made by Petzl, and is mounted to an elastic headband so the light follows your head movement. I use also the Mighty Brite orchestra pit light, but it’s a bit bluish.
Thanks for the comments and compliments everyone, and thanks for the story Michael. Darren Rousar is a good source for memory drawing information: http://www.studiorousar.com/category/memory-drawing/. (I will be in Ireland again this year).
@Jerry, you’re right – the Mighty Brites are slightly blue, I should edit the post. I find getting the light closer to the panel warms it up a bit, but using a second bicycle light would probably work better. Which Petzl is it?
Hey, Marc. A quick glance at the Petzl site http://www.petzl.com/en/outdoor/headlamps/all-headlamps shows that my particular light is no longer available, but there are several others that would work just as well. Good quality and several degrees of illumination.
Love the nocturns. The new LED camera lights are interesting they have variable colour temperature.
Rob
http://www.litepanels.com/language/pages/croma.php