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How deep is your space?

Charles Movalli OPAM · May 28, 2012 · 8 Comments

At one of my always stimulating dinners with my late friend Zyg Jankowski, he said to me that the first decision a painter has to make about his work is a spacial one: how “deep” do you want to make the picture? John Carlson felt that every foot into nature counted; Ed Whiney had no interest in such realistic depth and recommended a student plan the composition on-site but walk around a corner to paint it. Over the years, I’ve been schizophrenic about the question. Under Emile Gruppe’s tutelage, I naturally followed Carlson’s path. Later, I experimented with a flatter approach , one which, carried to an extreme, can make the subject disappear in a series of flat planes.

Charles Movalli OPAM - Figure 1
Charles Movalli OPAM - Figure 1
I rather enjoyed the broken, lively look of such surfaces. but felt that, after awhile, my pictures all began to look alike. They lacked mood. Now moderns like Hans Hoffmann despised the idea of mood; in fact, he called it a “swindle”– an easy way to make a pictorial statement at the cost of the more important and thoughtful thing: composition. My flat pictures, on the other hand, were all composition. I wandered back to a more “realistic” approach under the influence of artists like Sargent–who has undergone a publishing boom in the last twenty years–Sorolla, and the slew of recently discovered Russians.
Charles Movalli OPAM - Figure 2
Charles Movalli OPAM - Figure 2
I also encountered a Timkov at the old Fleisher Museum which astonished me, since it had both mood and a selective flatness in its approach. Indeed, all the artists I’ve mentioned knew when to go flat and when to add modeling. Gruppe, for example, would make fun of still-lifes whose pots and bottles were so roundly-modeled that you got “dizzy” looking at them. I also had an important lesson from him early in my career. I’d done a rocky hillside with trees against the sky and bushes in the foreground. He came along with a big brush, eliminated a distracting silhouette by pushing the trees out of the top of the frame and mushed the foreground bushes into insignificance. He then drew a few dark lines in the rocks, emphasizing their structure.
Charles Movalli OPAM - Figure 3
Charles Movalli OPAM - Figure 3
Done! That night, I jotted down his criticism: “In full light, you saw only the masses–as the sun went down, you saw the details and put them all in.” Of course, it took a while for this lesson to sink in! Sargent’s famous Lake Louise painting consists of similar flat smudges, and huge, dark-and-light compositional planes, all set off by a minimum of modeling in the foreground water. Such magic is possible when you give up any attempt to copy a subject photographically and instead focus on the large, simple masses that give the scene its visual interest . Once these planes are defined, very little modeling is need to bring “realism” to the subject. That’s why I don’t feel that the time I spent on my “flat period” was wasted: on the contrary, it made me even more aware of the importance of simple planes. It taught me how to summarize what I saw, how to make a precis of it–after which, I could put in as much “detail” as I wanted. In short, by adding very little, I could see how much I could get away. When entering a museum, I’m always anxious to see how this sort of slight-of-hand is practiced by the Masters. Not their manual skill, you understand; not, for example, how well they’ve painted the wings of a fly on a flower. But rather, how they’ve summarized that flower, reduced it to a few basic planes — and then brought it all to life by an edge or two and a few subtle shifts in value.
Note: for a further discussion of these points, check out YouTube:

Education, Oil Painting Oil Painting, Style, Technique

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Michael Chesley Johnson PSA MP says

    May 28, 2012 at 5:06 am

    Charles Movalli has always been one of my very favorite painters.  It’s good to read this thoughts here.

    Reply
  2. Malcolm Allsop says

    May 30, 2012 at 6:21 am

    Charles in an inspirational painter and had many fans here in the United Kingdom. I just wish he has committed some of this to a teaching DVD at some time. Wouldn’t that be great?

    Reply
    • Movalli says

      May 30, 2012 at 11:36 am

       M:  Oh-oh–“had” fans, eh?  My wife keeps telling me that I’ve fallen into total obscurity.  At least I’m not mobbed at the mall.  But that’s actually a plus when it comes to being an artist:   No one over  here would have recognized  Andrew Wyeth, and I bet Ken Howard could  could eat your undercooked bacon in any  restaurant   in the UK and remain  anonymous! CM

      Reply
      • Malcolm Allsop says

        May 30, 2012 at 11:50 am

        Sorry Charles. Fat finger typing on my part. Very much “has “. I think IPads were designed for people with brain surgeon fingers – which lets me out. We are the UK’s fastest growing producers of top end fine art DVDs and we would love to work with you. I first saw you on the Stobart public TV series which I bought on DVD years ago!

        Reply
  3. Marsha McDonald says

    June 6, 2012 at 5:05 pm

    Oh, WOW!  I would jump at a chance to see Charles Movalli do some demos on 
    DVD, Malcolm.  Do what you must to convince him, PLEASE!  I am a painter,
    who has also collected some of his work. 
    Are you reading this, Charles???

    Reply
    • Movalli says

      June 23, 2012 at 3:40 pm

       Marsha:  opps:  I took my eye off the blog–and you wrote a comment!   At one time, I pledged to be the only artist in America without (1)  a limited edition print  (now a “giglee”), (2)  a book  (having perpetrated many in my misspent youth)), and (3)  an instructional video (now a DVD).  So far, so good!  CM

      Reply
  4. Ingrid Hemphill says

    February 17, 2013 at 12:38 am

    Part of the DVD could be a discussion/slide lecture of painters who have inspired you. Part of it could be a visual list of supplies. You wouldn’t even have to face the camera much. A series of the process of beginning paintings with your back to an observing class would be great. A walk around a gallery talking about composition, etc. would be great. A documentary style DVD would help to continue the New England tradition of landscape painting. Missionary work! Your students would really appreciate it.

    Reply
  5. Greg Popa says

    August 21, 2013 at 3:55 pm

    Charles,
    I’d like to contact you about one of your paintings on Mt. Mansfield. My email is gpopa@myfairpoint.net
    Best, Greg Popa
    Editor, Stowe Guide & Magazine

    Reply

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Charles Movalli OPAM
Born in Gloucester, Massachusetts, Charles Movalli is earning a reputation for plein-air painting, which includes the conducting of summer workshops in Gloucester, Massachusetts. He has written several books on artists for Watson-Guptill including Emile Gruppe, Roger Curtis, and Betty Schlemm.
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