Part 21 (1/2)

Any man ould truly study for the just value and note of color must work more or less in this hen he works out-of-doors

CHAPTER xxxII

MARINES

All that has been said on landscape painting applies toand vibration of light and color There is no need to say the saain It is only necessary to take all these things for granted, and es which are peculiar to the sea

=Sea and Sky=--To begin with, the relation of the sky to what is under it is markedly different in color fro The sea is alwayssurface, and always strongly influenced in color, value, and key by the reflections of the sky on its surface The sky color is alwaysthe water--when and how depends on the condition of the weather, and the degree of quiet or movement of the water Sometimes the water is a perfect mirror; sometimes the mirror quality is almost lost, but the influence is there

This relation is the , because the sea and the sky is always the main part of your picture; and no matter what else is there, or hoell painted it nized, if they are not justly observed, your picture is bad

I cannot tell you all about these things The variety of effects and relations is infinite You must study them, paint them in the presence of nature, and use your eyes; only reht and color that I have spoken of elsewhere--all haveYou must study these, and think of thes, and apply them as well as you can

=Movement=--If ”_la nature ne s'arrete pas_” ordinarily, the fact is even more marked in marines; for the water is the very type of ceaseless motion Somehow, you must not only study in spite of the continual e to make that er uished from the waves themselves

The waves are a part of thatonly, without their relation to the great swing of the whole body of water, and you get rigidity rather than er motion See that first, and make it most evident, then let the waves themselves cut it up and help to express it

[Illustration: =Entrance to Zuyder Zee= _Clarkson Stanfield_]

=Wave Drawing=--How shall you ”draw” so changeable a thing as a wave?

Every wave has a type of fores it coical and practically identical sequence ofYou look at the wave, and then turn your eyes away to fix it on your canvas; as you look back, the wave is not there Well, you can only not try to make a portrait of each wave; it isn't possible Don't expect to Study the movement and type forms; think of it; fix it in your estive relation of it to other masses, and put that down

There is never a recurrence of the sa either in exact form or color, but fix your eyes on one place, and over and over again you will see a succession of waves of similar kind Or look at a wave and follow it as it drives on; changes coo, but the wave form in the e field of the water without too sharply focussing the eyes, you will see the great lines and planes ofthe same or similar shapes, positions, and relations And as you look your eye will follow the radually co the wave, it will have felt that the as the same in shape, but only varied in position

In this way you will come to know the wave forms Jot them down, either in color or with charcoal; but do not look for outline too much Try to study the forms and relations, mainly by the broad touch, with a characteristic direction andYou eneralize as well as you can

=Open Sea and Coast=--The open sea is allon it, s from the standpoint of invariable s first You have then the relation of the movement of the water to the rock or land, and you can si soood still; but you can get soes near it, and then extend your study as you feel strong enough

The study of coast scenery is quite as full of changing beauty as the open sea, and it has certain types that belong to it alone Breakers and surf, and the contrast of land and sea colors and for of rocks the study of character is quite as important, but not so evasive, as the study of wave forht to them The mass and immovability add to the charm and character of the water about them

=Subject=--Don't undertake too much expanse on one canvas Of course there are times when expanse is itself the main theme; but aside fros which you should study Whether your canvas be big or little, to get expanse everything in the way of detail and form must be relatively small, otherwise there is no room on the canvas for the expanse So if you would paint some surf, or a rock and breakers, or a shi+p, place thein proper proportion to the canvas, and let the expanse take care of itself, h to study it adequately If it is too small on the canvas, you cannot do this

=shi+ps=--The painting of the sea necessarily involvesof vessels of different kinds You nificant a relation to the picture that a very vague representation of it will do, but you e of all the details of structure and type if you give any prominence to the shi+p in your picture

=Detail=--You do not need to put in every rope in a vessel You do not need to follow out every line in the standing rigging even, in order to paint a shi+p properly To do this would id and lifeless But ignorance will not take the place of pedantry for all that Every kind of vessel has its own peculiar structure, its own peculiar proportions, and its own peculiar arrange Whether you are co, you must know and represent the true character of the craft you are painting You must take the trouble to knohy, and when sails are set, and what are the kinds, nueain only one way to know this If you are not especially a painter of marines, you may find that the study of some particular vessel in its present condition and relation to surrounding things will serve your turn; but if you go in for the painting of et to know vessels by being on and about theular marine painter fills dozens and hundreds of sketch-books with pencilled notes of details and positions and accidents and incidents of all sorts and conditions of shi+ps shi+ps under full sail and under reefed canvas; shi+ps in a squall and shi+ps in dead calm--he can never have too many of these facts to refer to

The true marine painter is nine parts a sailor If he does not take, or has not taken a voyage at sea, at least has passed and does pass a large part of his ti vessels and sailors He knows them both; his details are facts that he understands And what he puts in or leaves out of a painting is done with the full knowledge of its relative inificance of the shi+p

All this sounds like a good deal to undertake; but to the man who loves the water and what sails upon it, it is only following his liking, and any one who does not love all this should content hi; for sea pictures are not to be painted fro, and shi+ps particularly cannot be represented without an understanding of them