Techniques in Painting: Learning from the Dutch Masters 1789940583, 9781789940589

Table of contents :
Cover
Half-title
Copyright
Title
Dedication
Contents
Foreword
Introduction
Chapter 1: Portrait painting using Rembrandt’s techniques
Chapter 2: Painting a landscape – learning from Pieter Bruegel, Jacob van Ruisdael and Peter Paul Rubens
Chapter 3: Painting a still-life – learning from Jan van Eyck
Chapter 4: Art of imagination – learning from Hieronymous Bosch
Chapter 5: Ernst Fuchs – reviving the techniques of the Old Masters
Chapter 6: Fellowship and friendship
Chapter 7: Materials and methods
Glossary
Index
Acknowledgements

Citation preview

TECHNIQUES IN PA IN TING Learning from the

Dutch Masters

BRIGID MARLIN

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HERBERT PRESS Bloomsbury Publishing Plc 50 Bedford Square, London, WC1B 3DP, UK 29 Earlsfort Terrace, Dublin 2, Ireland BLOOMSBURY, HERBERT PRESS and the Herbert Press logo are trademarks of Bloomsbury Publishing Plc First published in Great Britain in 2022 This electronic edition published in 2022 by Bloomsbury Publishing Plc Copyright © Brigid Marlin 2022 Brigid Marlin has asserted her right under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act, 1988, to be identified as Author of this work All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or any information storage or retrieval system, without prior permissionin writing from the publishers Bloomsbury Publishing Plc does not have any control over, or responsibility for, any third-party websites referred to or in this book. All internet addresses given in this book were correct at the time of going to press. The author and publisher regret any inconvenience caused if addresses have changed or sites have ceased to exist, but can accept no responsibility for any such changes A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library ISBN 978-1-78994-058-9; eBook: 978-1-78994-059-6; ePDF: 978-1-78994-057-2 Produced and designed for Bloomsbury by Plum5 Limited Incidental photographs © Shutterstock

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TECHNIQUES IN PA IN TING Learning from the

Dutch Masters

BRIGID MARLIN

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On my last visit to Ernst Fuchs he gave me the latest book of his art and wrote in it: ‘To Brigid Marlin, my first Apostle of all the knowledge that she has passed on to all Visionary Artists around the World.’ Ernst Fuchs and Brigid Marlin

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To the memory of my great teacher Ernst Fuchs and to my magical sister Lis, who saved my life and saved my book

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‘Undine’ by Brigid Marlin – Rachel Topham Photography

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Contents Foreword Introduction Chapter 1

8 11 15

Portrait painting using Rembrandt’s techniques

Chapter 2

39

Painting a landscape – learning from Pieter Bruegel, Jacob van Ruisdael and Peter Paul Rubens

Chapter 3

65

Painting a still-life – learning from Jan van Eyck

Chapter 4

89

Art of imagination – learning from Hieronymous Bosch

Chapter 5

103

Ernst Fuchs – reviving the techniques of the Old Masters

Chapter 6

121

Fellowship and friendship

Chapter 7

141

Materials and methods

Glossary Index

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Foreword This beautifully illustrated book is an insightful guide to how the Old Masters of the Netherlands Renaissance captured such luminosity in their portraits, still-lives and landscapes. These painters were experts in a technique that was lost for centuries, and would have remained so had it not been for its revival by Austrian painter Ernst Fuchs and the many artists he taught and inspired. Brigid Marlin studied and later taught with him and through this book she will show you just how you can capture the magic of these Old Masters. You can see in even a casual museum visit how the light shines out from within these Renaissance paintings and how much less the ravages of time have damaged their smooth surfaces than is the case for those painted in later times. In this practical guide, Brigid reveals the intricate details entailed in this painting technique, and provides exercises for you to try it out. If you are an artist keen to develop your skills, you will find a treasure trove of examples, tips and detailed instruction on how to master these techniques and apply them to your own vision. If you simply love art and want to better understand the Netherlands Renaissance, this book will enhance your knowledge and appreciation. I have spent many a vacation gazing in awe at Brigid at work. It’s magical, watching her first transform that red gesso board into a perfect white drawing, then apply glazes of yellow and blue, and at last bring all the different colours into the final painting. Our family is blessed to have been gifted several of her works and to have been able to purchase others. That’s a prime benefit of my fifty years of marriage to Brigid’s wonderful brother John, the renaissance man of my dreams. ‘Loops of Her Hair’ was Brigid’s wedding gift to us. Our home glows with Brigid’s opalescent light and her fantastical visions. – Alice Tepper Marlin

‘Loops of Her Hair’ by Brigid Marlin

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Introduction In his book Secret Knowledge: Rediscovering the Lost Techniques of the Old Masters, David Hockney relates how, after visiting The Genius of Rome exhibition in London in January 2001, he was approached by a student of the Royal Academy who said he had no idea how the paintings had been achieved. Hockney went on to say, ‘Here was an indictment of art history that seems to have no concern for teachable techniques. If science did not pass on its knowledge to the young, we would soon be in the Dark Ages. Isn’t this irresponsible?’ Throughout my career as a professional artist, I have studied techniques in painting. What I try to express through my painting is, of course, deeply personal. The techniques I have learned simply help me to express myself more effectively. Many of these techniques are no longer taught in art schools and, as Hockney says, are in danger of being forgotten. In this book I will share with you my experience of learning, using and teaching techniques in painting. I hope that you will find something here to help you in your own journey as a painter and that you in turn will pass your discoveries on to others. This book is for artists who would like to learn the techniques of the Old Masters of the Netherlands Renaissance. It is a practical manual taking you step by step through the processes these artists used. I have spent most of my life using these techniques and teaching them to the hundreds of fellow artists who have painted alongside me in classes or in my studio. I found that the best way of teaching was to paint in parallel with my students, so that at each step the students could try something, watch me do it, and try again, repeating the process until the lessons stuck.

‘Flight of the Churches’ by Brigid Marlin

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Introduction

I have written each chapter picturing you in my studio painting by my side. Each chapter is standalone apart from Chapter 7 which contains the materials and methods common to all.

In Chapter 5 I introduce you to Ernst Fuchs, a modern painter and the founder of the Vienna School of Fantastic Realism. Fuchs revived the techniques of the Netherlands Renaissance and adapted them to modern materials. He called his modern interpretation the Mische technique. In this chapter I describe what it was like to learn from him in his studio and I reconstruct the steps I took to paint a self-portrait under his supervision.

In the opening chapter I paint a portrait applying techniques that Rembrandt used, explaining and illustrating each step in detail. I show you how to use alternating layers of oil glazes and egg tempera. We start with Rembrandt, the most recent of the artists featured, because he simplified the techniques of his predecessors.

In Chapter 6 I talk about the importance of community in painting. I share with you some of the work and thoughts of fellow artists I have got to know through learning together. Their paintings show you the different ways in which these techniques can be used to create paintings of intensely observed reality or unfettered imagination.

In Chapter 2 we look at landscapes using examples from Bruegel, van Ruisdael and Rubens. I take the opportunity to discuss composition using examples of their work. We paint a landscape together and I show you how to create distance through the use of glazes.

In Chapter 7 I advise you on the materials you need and take you through some basic methods such as preparing gesso boards, grinding egg tempera and applying glazes. I summarise the steps of the Mische technique for your future reference.

In Chapter 3 we look at the discoveries of the van Eyck brothers who first studied the effects of alternating oil glazes and egg tempera and I work alongside you as you paint a still-life using their techniques. We look at their use of gold leaf and learn how these techniques can be applied today. In Chapter 4 we look at how Hieronymous Bosch used the techniques of the van Eycks to achieve visionary and fantastic works of art and I share my own experience of creating art of imagination.

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‘Self-portrait’ by Rembrandt

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Chapter 1 PORTRAIT PAINTING USING REMBRANDT’S TECHNIQUES I have been an artist all my life. I can’t remember a time before I was spending all my time drawing and painting. I attended art schools in Dublin, New York and Paris and studied in the studios of painters I admired. I found one of the best ways to learn the craft of painting was to study the techniques used by painters whose work inspired me. Best of all was to spend time watching an artist I admired at work. It is also rewarding – if a bit more challenging – to learn from the works of long-dead artists. A standard exercise for art students used to be copying a painting by an Old Master. It used to be quite common in art galleries to see students working at their easels, struggling to replicate a masterpiece. The close observation required is a good way to gain insight into the techniques the artist used, but a poor substitute for watching the artist at work. In this chapter I will show you how I painted a portrait using techniques and materials similar to those Rembrandt used, building the painting up layer by layer as he would have done. I will explain things as I go along, just as if you were in the studio watching me work. I was not, of course, setting out to rival Rembrandt’s genius as a portraitist, simply to learn from him and, along the way, to help you learn. For my subject I chose my friend Nicole. Her family came from a combination of Egyptian and Italian aristocracy and I thought she would make an intriguing subject for my portrait. While I considered how I would do this, I got ready by preparing a gesso board and grinding my egg tempera as described in Chapter 7. I had to decide how to compose my picture, starting with the angle from which the face would be viewed. Rembrandt often chose the three-quarters angle. It reveals a hint of what the profile is like, while disclosing almost as much information about eyes and mouth as a full face portrait. I posed Nicole at a three-quarters angle with her head tilted very slightly down so that she was looking slightly up. I decided to include her upper body and hands in the portrait. Nicole was an unrepentant chain-smoker, never without a cigarette between her fingers, and I wanted to capture that. Finally I had to decide what to ask Nicole to wear. Rembrandt loved to dress up his sitters in rich velvets and costume hats, as he did himself for his self-portraits. I asked Nicole to come wearing something dark and elegant, reflecting a certain formality and dignity in her character.

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Step 1: Drawing in pencil Having decided on the composition, I drew a pencil sketch of Nicole straight on to the gesso board, using a soft pencil. One of the most difficult things about portrait painting is capturing a three-dimensional figure in two dimensions. If you get this wrong at the start it is very hard to rescue your portrait at a later stage. The beauty of doing a sketch in pencil before starting to paint is that you can correct any errors very easily. Many portrait painters take a photo of the sitter, enlarging it and tracing the outlines. If you are thinking that sounds like cheating, it is worth remembering that as early as the sixteenth century artists were known to have used the camera obscura, and later adopted the camera lucida. They traced the outlines of the image projected by the camera onto the painting surface and took it from there. Getting the basic proportions correct from the start is a huge help in getting a likeness and saves a lot of heartache later on. As it happens, I didn’t use a photograph to do my pencil sketch of Nicole, but I often do use this technique, taking a photo of the pose I want, enlarging it to the size required and tracing the outlines onto the gesso using transfer paper (see Chapter 7 for how to do this).

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Portrait Painting Using Rembrandt’s Techniques

Step 2: Outlining in ink

Step 3: Applying a red ground colour

Once I was happy with my drawing I took a black waterproof ink pen and carefully went over the outlines. When the ink was dry, I just wiped the pencil marks off with a cloth dipped in turpentine. You can see how clean it now looks, all ready for the painting to start. The fine details have disappeared but they helped me see the finished painting in my head, so the effort was not wasted.

Most artists today paint straight onto a blank canvas or board, but Rembrandt would have started by covering the whole surface with a glaze – a thin transparent coating of colour. I did this by covering my board with a ‘ground’ colour of Red Iron Oxide acrylic paint diluted with a little water. The paint needs to be spread on thickly enough to create a smooth background but thinly enough to ensure that the ink drawing still shows through. (Waterproof ink will be undisturbed by the paint.) I used acrylic paint for the ground colour as it is quick-drying and there is no risk of it bleeding into oil-based paints.

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Step 4: Painting in white egg tempera I was now ready to start applying the white egg tempera I had prepared (as described in Chapter 7). Rembrandt would have used the same method of making and using egg tempera that was taught in monasteries and in artists’ studios from the Middle Ages. To apply the egg tempera I used a very fine high-quality sable brush. I like Windsor & Newton or da Vinci, size no. 1 or 0. This step of applying the white egg tempera with fine brushstrokes requires the greatest attention. It is your way of ‘sculpting’ the face – with your brushstrokes following the contours of the skin, its outlines, and its direction, so as to create the illusion of three dimensions (left). To apply the egg tempera, you put a tiny quantity into a small disposable container (bottle tops are handy because they can be thrown away when the egg tempera has dried). Then make sure you shut the lid on the egg tempera jar so it doesn’t dry up. Another bottle top is needed for water, because in order to flow easily, egg tempera must always be mixed with the right amount of water, until it has the consistency of India ink. You are now ready to start your brushstrokes. On the facing page, I have given some examples of the brushstrokes you need. For clarity I have drawn them in black on white, but of course they will be done in white egg tempera on red in your picture.

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Portrait Painting Using Rembrandt’s Techniques

This technique, carefully developed, can change your ability to see faces. It enables you to study the way the skin folds itself around the face, and to perceive how shadows and highlights delineate the features. Rembrandt started drawing in early childhood and became an artist’s apprentice at 14, so he had plenty of opportunity to perfect his craft. To develop something like his skill at observation you too need to practise. I promise that if you master the technique of painting with white egg tempera you will make huge strides in your development as a portrait painter. I next used the egg tempera as a means of sculpting the planes of the face. Where the light falls on the face, it picks out the highlights. They need to be painted in pure white, then as the skin falls away from the highlight it gets less white – your brushstrokes must record this descent using thinner white tones just as if you were recording the planes of a mountainside. In the same way you need to follow the direction of the skin where it is pulled up or down or sideways and record this with delicate brushstrokes. For example, sometimes you might find that in the cheeks, the skin is pulled towards the nose but also pulled down from the forehead. This requires careful observation and helps define the character of the face. In carrying out this step in Nicole’s portrait, you can see how I used a thin glaze of egg tempera in areas where the light was dim instead of small brushstrokes, but this device should be used sparingly or the effects achieved by the small brushstrokes will be lost (see opposite). When the egg tempera underpainting is finished the painting is ready for the oil glaze which will pull the whole picture together.

The brushstrokes for starting a portrait.

A heavier line can be used to outline a highlight, such as on the model’s nose.

Sometimes the skin is pulled in two ways by gravity as on the model’s cheek.

For a very faint light you can dilute the egg tempera by adding extra water till it becomes a pale wash.

When the direction is curved it is easier to use a broken line or dots.

To indicate a close web of light you can use crosshatching.

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Step 5: Applying a yellow glaze The painters of the Netherlands Renaissance used a technique of starting with alternate layers of oil paint glazes and white egg tempera painting. The order of the coloured glazes was usually red/yellow/blue. Rembrandt and his students usually chose Yellow Ochre for their yellow glaze. It is a semi-opaque colour and gives a warm tone to the painting as well as uniting the painting into a whole. Rembrandt dispensed with the blue glaze used by his predecessors, making his technique a little simpler. I mixed my Yellow Ochre paint with an oil-painting medium of half linseed oil (refined artist quality) and half Damar varnish. I was careful not to add too much medium to the mixture. If you do that the glaze will be too dilute and will also take ages to dry. I applied the glaze with a broad no. 12 artist’s bristle brush. You can see that with this step completed, Nicole’s face is beginning to come to life.

Step 6: Putting in the darks An oil glaze takes around two days to dry, depending on the temperature and humidity of the environment. It is a good idea to have something else all ready to be getting on with while you wait. I like to picture Rembrandt in his studio painting away, surrounded by half-finished portraits in various stages of drying.

applying them I mixed the blobs of paint with painting medium (i.e. half linseed oil and half Damar varnish) on my palette. I recommend not using more than a pea-sized blob of each paint on your palette. I used Ivory Black for Nicole’s hat and Burnt Umber for her dress. To keep the beauty of the transparent and liquid quality of the dark paints, I took great care to keep these colours unadulterated by the slightest bit of opaque paint, which would dull their luminosity (right).

At last my painting of Nicole was dry and I could get going with the next step. I got my palette out and added small blobs of the oil colours I thought I would need to paint Nicole’s clothes. Before

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Step 7: Second painting in white egg tempera Next I switched back to using white egg tempera paint again, with water as the painting medium. I reapplied white egg tempera to the face in tiny lines with even more care than before, using fine sable brushes no. 0 and no. 1. This stage gives you a chance to refine your brushstrokes to as near perfection as you can achieve.

White adds a cooling effect, making the face ready for the warm pink glaze of the skin which is to come. I also repeated the egg tempera painting of the hands and highlights on the clothes.

At this stage I decided to finish off the eyes to make the face more real to me. I first painted Nicole’s eyes with egg tempera over the Yellow Ochre glaze. Then I started to put in oil colours with oil-painting medium. I chose Burnt Sienna to paint the shadowed side of the eyes. This colour, painted over the Yellow Ochre glaze, gave them a warm luminosity. I noticed a rim round her

iris of a green that was almost blue. I captured that using French Ultramarine with a tiny bit of Yellow Ochre. Finally I put in the highlights in the eyes with white egg tempera. That moment of putting the highlights in the eyes is like magic. This is when the face suddenly springs to life.

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Step 8: Painting with oil colours When I had painted a basic pinkish flesh tone over the face, I let it dry thoroughly before adding the shadows. I was careful to smooth the shadows into the face to avoid harsh lines.

Finally, I was ready to switch to oils to colour Nicole’s face. The colours Rembrandt used were different from those available today. Paint technology has advanced and some of the colours he used are now very expensive or hard to find, or are poisonous and no longer manufactured. For this demonstration I used modern colours, but I tried to keep the colour scheme reflective of Rembrandt’s palette.

To help you with your choice of colours, I have prepared a chart (opposite) demonstrating the colour range which can be achieved by using the paint more thinly or when mixed with Titanium White. At the bottom I have put the basic colour as it comes out of the tube, then, moving up the chart, I have shown each colour in a thinner application. At the top I show each colour when mixed with Titanium White.

I chose Cadmium Red and Permanent Rose, Titanium White and Burnt Sienna. I added a small amount of Burnt Umber and Ultramarine. Cadmium Red and Permanent Rose are good for lips. Permanent Rose, mixed with Titanium White, is good for skin colour. As Permanent Rose is a very strong colour it may be necessary to add a little Burnt Sienna. This combination can also be used as a dark glaze for the lips. Burnt Sienna is good for the highlights in the hair. Burnt Umber is good for dark shadows in the hair as well as for shadows on the face, if mixed as a very light glaze. A tiny amount of Ultramarine is useful to add to Burnt Umber for the face shadows. A small amount of French Ultramarine mixed with Titanium White is good for modifying the white of the eyes and will prevent a staring look. (No eyeballs are ever pure white.)

Rembrandt’s palette consisted of Azurite, Smalt, Lead-tin Yellow, Yellow Ochre, Red Ochre, Vermillion, Madder Lake, Carmine Lake, Raw Sienna, Burnt Sienna, Raw Umber, Burnt Umber, Cassel Earth, Brown Ochre, Lead White and Bone Black (David Bamford; Art in the Making: Rembrandt. Yale University Press).

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Chart for the Face

Mixed with more Titanium White

Mixed with Titanium White

Light Glaze

Dark Glaze

Body Colour

Cadmium Red

Permanent Rose

Burnt Sienna

Burnt Umber

French Ultramarine

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Portrait Painting Using Rembrandt’s Techniques

‘Nicole’ by Brigid Marlin

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Step 9: Painting Hands Nicole knew I disapproved of her chain-smoking. She wouldn’t give it up and her hands were her accomplices. I painted her with one hand possessively clutching her lighter. The other hand is nicotine-stained and holds the cigarette as if it were part of her. The hand resting on her lap is simplified in shape, clutching the object almost like a bird’s beak. The other hand has a balletic gesture, where the fingers fall away into a rhythm, and the central part of the hand is in darkness, giving it a powerful shape between the fingers and the foreshortened thumb. Note the pink in the fingers and how dark the shadows are in the hands. They will be the same colours as the face, except for the nicotine stains, which are Burnt Sienna. Suddenly it all falls into shape, because the hands are doing something related to the face; Nicole is giving us a naughty, defiant smile (see previous page).

Rembrandt’s later portraits If you are an admirer of Rembrandt, you will be aware that the techniques I have described are more relevant to his earlier portraits than to those he produced as he grew old.

This transition is not uncommon among artists, as they develop their craft until it is second nature and seemingly effortless. Giorgio Vasari (1511–74) in his Lives of the Most Excellent Painters, Sculptors and Architects warned students of Titian that behind the apparent carelessness of his later painting there lay a vast store of experience. He therefore advised young artists not to attempt this ‘rough manner’ until they were older. He stressed that artists should begin by first mastering a painstaking and fine technique, and only attempt the rough manner later in life. This same advice is relevant to students of Rembrandt.

Rembrandt had studied art since he was 14 years old, and had a deep knowledge of the human face gained through his observations when painting and etching. He could use egg tempera with a facility which enabled him to ‘sculpt’ the form of the face very quickly and finely. As he got older, he changed his style and painted in a much looser and rougher way.

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‘Self-portrait’ by Rembrandt

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‘Flora’ (1641) by Rembrandt

If you want to try these techniques for yourself, I recommend starting with an exercise. Painting a hand would be a great place to start. You will need some basic materials, so check out Chapter 7 where I go through what you will need. Let’s take Flora’s left hand from this painting by Rembrandt as the model, since it is very simply posed.

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PAINTING A HAND Step 1: Drawing in pencil

Before you start, remind yourself of the underlying bone and joint structure of the hand. An anatomical drawing is useful for this, such as the one below, but bear in mind that when the living hand is at rest the thumb is on another plane from the fingers and rotated so that you see the thumbnail in profile.

Draw the hand in pencil, either freehand straight onto your gesso board or tracing the outline from a photograph, as you prefer.

Anatomy of the hand bones

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Step 2: Outlining in ink Take a pen with waterproof black ink and go over the outlines of your pencil drawing.

Step 3: Applying a red ground colour When the ink is dry, coat the whole of your board with Red Iron Oxide acrylic paint, thinned with a little water. The ink outlines should still show through.

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Step 4: Painting with white egg tempera Go over the hand with white egg tempera (made according to the instructions in Chapter 7), being careful to observe the way the skin is rounded over each finger and the thumb: mark the folds in the skin which show where the finger joints are, and mark also where the knuckles push up under the skin, making little shadows.

Step 5: Applying a yellow glaze Put a thin layer of Yellow Ochre oil paint thinned with oil-painting medium over the painting, and let that dry. Remember that acrylic paint and egg tempera paint are always mixed with water whereas oil paints are always mixed with oil-painting medium.

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Step 6: Painting in white egg tempera Now repeat the painting of the hand in white egg tempera and water. Show where the light falls on the hand, and where it is more in shadow. To express the shadow, use the egg tempera more thinly. Paint stronger highlights in the lower half of the fingers and on the knuckles.

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Step 7: Finishing in oil colours Finally paint the hand in oil colours, using oil-painting medium to thin the paints. Remember to keep this layer of colour thin so as not to lose the strength of the underpainting. The skin here is mainly Titanium White with a little Yellow Ochre and Cadmium Scarlet as a base colour, the fingertips are pinker than the centre

of the hand, so add a little Permanent Rose, then look for the shadows. Rembrandt has created a very dark background for his Flora, so there are many shadows. I used a small amount of Permanent Rose with mainly Burnt Umber and here and there a tiny bit of Ivory Black to darken the hand where needed.

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Finally, have a look at the wonderfully expressive hands that form the centrepiece of Rembrandt’s ‘The Jewish Bride’.

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Chapter 2 PAINTING A LANDSCAPE LEARNING FROM PIETER BRUEGEL, JACOB VAN RUISDAEL AND PETER PAUL RUBENS The Old Master techniques, with their multiple layers of glazes and egg tempera, do not lend themselves to painting ‘en plein air’. The Old Masters created their landscapes in studios, not out of doors. They doubtless made plenty of sketches to work from, as well as drawing on their imagination. Western European art did not previously have a tradition of landscape painting, other than as a setting for portraits or religious themes. With the rise of the Protestant religion, the market for sacred images slumped. Fortunately the Dutch ‘Golden Age’ (1575–1675) was a time of prosperity and there were plenty of newly rich merchants eager for fashionable paintings to hang in their expensive homes. Landscapes, whether featuring local scenes or romantic mountain crags, were something new, and quickly became popular.

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Composing a landscape The advantage of composing your landscape in a studio is that you are not confined to what the eye can see. Using your memory and your imagination, supported by sketches and photos, you can experiment with techniques for creating balance and tension, rhythm and points of interest in your landscapes. Composing a landscape is an excellent exercise in discovering for yourself what makes a painting work.

Single tree

Two trees in balance

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Balance and Tension My mother, Hilda van Stockum (1908–2006), a Dutch-born writer and artist, used to say that composing a picture was like writing a story. If there is no problem and everyone is happy, there is no story. The painter’s job is to create a problem and then resolve it in a way that leaves a sense of that tension in the resolution. On the facing page are two compositions without tension: everything is perfectly balanced, and arugably a bit boring. Now see what happens if we introduce a problem. In the tree off-centre image (left, top) we have a tree dragging down one side of the picture; how can this be resolved? Adding three little trees on the other side partially restores the balance, but still leaves a tension which gives life to the picture.

Tree off-centre

Off-centre tree balanced

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Horizons Landscapes usually include a horizon and the placing of this merits attention. A horizon that divides a painting in the middle risks being boring, while placing it higher or lower will be more interesting because it creates a problem of balance that has to be solved. Pieter Bruegel the Elder (c. 1525–69) often painted his landscapes with a high horizon, using an elevated ‘bird’s eye view’ so that the viewer seems to be looking down on a scene. From a practical point of view, the high horizon leaves more room in the picture to depict people and their world. This picture, Hunters in the snow’, as with many by Bruegel, is absolutely packed with people – not only the disappointed hunters but the women tending the fire under the broken inn sign and all the skaters in the distance. He has left little room for sky, just enough to explain the colour of the ice, and he has de-emphasised the line of the horizon with bushes, trees and crags. The picture is divided down the middle vertically, with the left side being so close up and the right side so much in the distance that a problem of balance is created. This is partly resolved by the bird in flight, leading us from one to the other and partly by several strong diagonal lines. (Bruegel was of course drawing on his imagination, as no such mountainous landscape exists in the Netherlands.)

‘Hunters in the snow’ by Pieter Bruegel the Elder, Kunsthistorisches Museum,Vienna

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‘Extensive Landscape with a ruined Castle and a Village Church’ by Jacob van Ruisdael, National Gallery, London

Jacob van Ruisdael (c. 1628–82) usually chose a low horizon, allowing space for his trademark vast cloudscapes. In the picture above, the people in the foreground are shadowy figures tucked away in a corner. The village church and the romantic ruined castle balance each other, with the church spire piercing the horizon and acting as a focal point to draw the eye. From there the eye is attracted to a central splash

of sunshine, cradling a tiny windmill, and then back down to the castle, past the river and back to that steeple again. The result is a sense of movement in both the cloud-filled sky and the countryside below. The whole composition creates an atmosphere which is contemplative but not static, and in which the affairs of man are put into perspective.

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Rhythm Landscape paintings can create a sense of rhythm through the use of repetition and pattern. Bruegel in his harvest painting ‘Harvesters’, repeats certain elements (the workers, the wheat sheaves, the squares of cut grain) to create a series of beats. This emphasises the ritual quality of this annual activity. It is like poetry to see the land bearing fruit and the harvesters toiling to cut it and making patterns as they lay the grain on the ground and then bind it into sheaves, finally collapsing under a tree to have their lunch.

‘Harvesters’ by Pieter Bruegel the Elder, Metropolitan Museum, New York

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Peter Paul Rubens (1577–1640) in this painting of peasants engaged in a wild dance emphasises the closeness of the country people to the earth and its rhythms. The people are throwing themselves into a swirling dance that seems to echo the turning of the planet. Even the trees seem to join in that joyous dance. There is a kind of magic in this painting.

‘Peasants dancing’ by Peter Paul Rubens, Prado Museum, Madrid

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‘Vessels in a Choppy Sea’ by Jacob van Ruisdael, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston

Finally, have a look at the composition of Jacob van Ruisdael’s seascape, ‘Vessels in a Choppy Sea’.

away from them there is a compelling tension. I find something triumphant in this painting by a Dutchman: he is proud of his nation which has conquered the huge power of the sea in creating itself, and at this time in history is challenging France, Spain and England as a sea power. The Dutch flags are flying out to proclaim their message.

The low horizon and the huge clouds emphasise the puniness of man against nature, and the choppy sea pierced with staves in the foreground warns of the danger that threatens the boats. Between the whitetopped shallows and the white-sailed boat pulling

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Demonstration PAINTING A LANDSCAPE USING THE TECHNIQUES OF THE OLD MASTERS I am going to demonstrate how I created a landscape in my studio using the techniques that Bruegel, van Ruisdael and Rubens used to create their masterpieces. The first seven steps are the same as in the first chapter, but these earlier artists used more layers than Rembrandt so this is a little more complicated. I promise you it will be worth discovering what you gain with the extra steps. You will learn the most if you paint your own landscape along with me, following me step by step just as if you were one of my pupils in my studio. I have deliberately planned my landscape to be uncomplicated and I suggest you do the same with yours until you get the hang of these techniques. PLANNING THE COMPOSITION Find a view which has some interesting features or an atmosphere you would like to try to capture and take several good colour photographs, varying the composition. Make some detailed pencil sketches as well if you like. Pay attention to tension and balance, points of interest and rhythm. Think about where you want the horizon to go. A scene captured in the early morning or late afternoon will give you interesting shadows. (Working from multiple images captured at different times is not a good idea because landscapes change a lot over the course of a day due to changing light and weather.) For this exercise I used a scene in County Kerry, Ireland. It was early morning when you could still see the moon. The strange double rock on the right, covered in yellow lichen, became a focal point and was echoed by the two hills on the left. I will talk you through how to create your own landscape while I demonstrate how I created mine.

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Step 1: Drawing in pencil Transfer your sketch or photograph to your board, either by drawing freehand or by tracing the outlines of your image using transfer paper, and then add detail as necessary. I like to make quite a detailed drawing as it helps me understand my subject, but it is only the outlines that will be kept.

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Step 2: Outlining in ink Using a fine waterproof black ink pen, ink in your pencil lines. When the ink is dry, wipe off any smudges or pencil marks with a cloth dipped in turpentine.

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Step 3: Applying a red ground colour Use an acrylic red for this layer, mixed with a little water to thin it. Acrylic Red Oxide is usually a good choice, but you can change the ground colour to vary the effect as long as it is a warm dark colour. Here I am using Burnt Sienna. It is quite a strong colour and you could make it a little lighter, but you can still see the ink lines coming through, so there isn’t a problem.

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Step 4: Painting in white egg tempera Now you need to prepare your white egg tempera paint (see Chapter 7) and put in the details of your landscape with a fine brush. You can use a larger brush to lighten the sky with a wash of white egg tempera mixed with more water to thin it out. Avoid getting too finicky, you need to save the very finest details for the later stages of your painting. This layer of white egg tempera is all about painting the light. Ask yourself where the

light is coming from – which direction? In my painting, the light is coming from the left and from fairly low on the horizon as it is still early morning. I put on a thin wash of white egg tempera for the sky and lake, and a stronger white for the clouds, and then used thicker white for the light parts of the trees and grass. Notice the way the light picks out the rugged forms on the rocks and mountains.

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Step 5: Applying a yellow glaze When the egg tempera is dry, you next need to apply your yellow oil glaze. I am using Cadmium Yellow here with a touch of Titanium White, adding only a little because Cadmium Yellow is already slightly opaque. Don’t forget to stop using water as a medium and change to your oil-painting medium to apply the glaze. When the glaze has been evenly applied (hints on how to do this are in Chapter 7) let it dry thoroughly.

Step 6: Painting in white egg tempera Now you need to put in your second layer of white egg tempera – remembering to change over to painting with water when you do this. The yellow glaze has softened your lights and you need to bring them out again.

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Step 7: Putting in the darks brown gives solidity to your landscape. It will define your structure, and give it strength. It gives ‘bones’ to your light-filled image. The contrast between light and dark is very rewarding, and is a foretaste of how the landscape will look when you are finished.

After bringing the light to your painting again with white egg tempera, you need to balance it by putting in the darks with dark oil paints. You could use Burnt Umber for the darks – with the oil-painting medium – but leave untouched the light places. This dark

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Step 8: Applying a blue glaze When the painting is completely dry it is time to add a blue oil glaze. You can choose any blue oil colours from Manganese Blue to Ultramarine Blue, but it is important not to forget to add a little Titanium White. In the case of this landscape I chose Manganese Blue as it was a light summer morning. The light blue coating gives an extraordinary impression of seeing the scene through a blue mist. All the underpainting seems to blend and in the following steps you must try not to lose this effect.

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Step 9: Third painting in white egg tempera When the blue glaze is thoroughly dry, you need to put in the last overall white egg tempera layer, with water as your medium. This is the moment to make your details perfect. Get the beauty of the way the light falls on different surfaces, the flat plane of the lake, the fluffiness of clouds, the tough edges of rock and the soft edges of grass and trees. This time take great care to keep your brushstrokes as delicate as possible.

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Step 10: Painting with oil colours in small glazes Take your colour palette and put out a variety of oil colours in a rainbow formation. Only put a small amount of each colour on the palette. You will be painting in small thin glazes. In my painting some parts just need a very thin glaze to be complete. The sky and parts of the lake only need a thin glaze of blue, the trees need some green glazes, and different yellows can be added to the grass, the horizon line and the lichen on the nearby boulders.

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Step 11: Finishing You now have the basis for completing your painting. While you let it dry consider how to finish it. Check that the balance of your colours is right – you may need to bring out some details to enhance the painting as a whole or darken some places that are taking too much attention. You are free to go back to your egg tempera to highlight any feature that needs it or you can add more oil glazes to get the right depth of colour. There is no limit to the glazes you can add. Rubens boasted that sometimes he added as many as 30 glazes to get exactly the colours he wanted. (I don’t recommend this!) If you do want to touch up the egg tempera, remember this important rule: Never leave any egg tempera without a covering! If it is not covered by a colour glaze then put on a clear glaze of oil-painting medium to protect it. Egg tempera without a coating of oil-painting medium is very vulnerable to air and moisture. How you finish your painting will be down to your artistic eye and judgement, but I will explain how I finished mine. The trees at the back needed bringing out, so I darkened them with Monestial Green and Burnt Sienna – and then put highlights in with white egg tempera. I added a glaze of Burnt Sienna to the middle-ground hills on the left and on the rocks and grasses in the front. I felt the clouds in the back

needed strengthening and I needed to emphasise a highlight reflection of the clouds creating a white reflected path coming down connecting to the brown rocks in front. I added more white to the foamy water around the brown rocks in the front and a white highlight on to the big rock right in the front. I wanted to bring the front of the picture forward so I added thin glazes of Burnt Sienna, Cadmium Red and Indian Yellow to the grasses. In the front, I used a warmer Cadmium Yellow with a touch of Titanium White over the grassy area, and, as it got near to the bottom edge of the painting, a glaze of Burnt Sienna mixed in. I picked out the nearest grasses in red to complete the forward movement. The unusual rocks in front were a point of interest and needed to be painted with care. I began to see them as a kind of still -life, with their astonishing yellow lichen and dark crevices. They also needed warm touches, bearing in mind the rule that ‘warm colours come forward, cold colours go back’. Finally I added Lemon Yellow glazes at the back, on the tree and mountain highlights, and above all on the strip of land above the lake, and its reflection below. Once that was done I was happy and my painting was finished.

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‘Rocks in the Ring of Kerry, Ireland’ by Brigid Marlin, Mische technique

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EXERCISE using oil glazes to create depth To make the hills recede, I mixed Manganese Blue with a little Titanium White until I got a sky blue. I applied a thin glaze of this on the top half of the picture only. (I stopped before the line of small trees on the middle.) You will see that my hills now go back. This works because you are representing the atmosphere with your blue glaze.

Warm colours bring things forward and cool colours push them back. Details also bring things forward. Artists have recognised these principles for centuries. It is well worthwhile practising how to do this if you are not already confident. Let me demonstrate using a simple landscape, very simply painted just using acrylics and some oil glazes (I don’t recommend this as a technique except for practice exercises like this one). I chose the view from my studio window. I started the painting using three different acrylic greens: Viridian, Hooker’s Green and Sap Green, as well as a little Yellow Ochre to separate one of the fields, and a little pale blue for the sky. Looking at the painting it is clear that it is two-dimensional – the hills are not receding.

In order to make the front come forward I needed a warm colour. I mixed Indian Yellow with a very tiny bit of Titanium White and painted it on the front of my landscape in a thin glaze. You will see that the foreground has come forward and the landscape is rolling back from it. Finally I painted some bright details in the foreground to bring it even further forward. The landscape now has depth.

View from my window painted in acrylics

Blue glaze distances the background

Warm glaze brings foreground forward

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Details bring the foreground even further forward

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‘The Adoration of the Mystic Lamb’ by Jan van Eyck, St. Bavo’s Cathedral, Ghent, Belgium – detail (full paintng overleaf)

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Chapter 3 PAINTING A STILL-LIFE: LEARNING FROM JAN VAN EYCK TECHNIQUES OF THE VAN EYCK BROTHERS The Flemish brothers Hubert (c. 1380–1426) and Jan van Eyck (c. 1390–1441) are credited with developing the layered oil/egg tempera techniques that Rembrandt used to such effect. The brothers caused a revolution in the technical aspects of painting by experimenting with the materials available in their day. For example, they painted a series of paintings using different oils and left them out in the sun. Only linseed oil and walnut oil were unaffected, so they adopted those. They discovered that starting with a ground colour of bright red most enriched the gold leaf that they used in their devotional paintings. The red also provided a good contrasting background for delicate work with white egg tempera. They showed that painting in alternate layers of egg tempera (mixed with water) and colour glazes (mixed with oil) created a durable product – with the layer of inert egg tempera protecting the oil glazes from reacting with each other. An added benefit was that the white egg tempera shining through the glazes gave luminosity to the colours. The brothers originally worked in stained glass, where they will have learned to appreciate bright clear colours. In Jan Eyck’s painting ‘The Adoration of the Mystic Lamb’, the colours are still astonishingly bright for a painting nearly 600 years old. No photo can do it justice, it is worth a trip to Ghent just to see this masterpiece.

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‘The Adoration of the Mystic Lamb’ – close detail of flowers

Such a massive work may seem an odd choice on which to base a chapter on still-life, but just look at this detail from the same painting, where each flower is beautifully observed and is glowing with light. To get an insight

into how these effects were achieved, let me take you through the process of painting a still-life with flowers, using the techniques the brothers developed.

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Demonstration PAINTING A STILL-LIFE USING THE TECHNIQUES OF THE VAN EYCK BROTHERS I am going to show you how we can use these techniques to create paintings so luminous they almost look back-lit. Paint along with me, step by step – it is the best way to learn. Check Chapter 7: Materials and methods for the materials you need to prepare before you start. I suggest you set up your still-life subject matter against a plain dark background and don’t overcomplicate it with too many objects. Include something made of glass and half-filled with water to give a sparkle, something in metal to provide a different kind of shine, and something living like a flower or plant. Make sure there is only one light source, in front or to one side. Now arrange your objects so that their composition pleases your eye, allowing one of them to take centre stage. When you are happy, take a good quality colour photograph. It will help you in the final stages even if you don’t use it to create your pencil drawing. Choose the size of gesso board you are going to use. I recommend a small size for this exercise, something like 12" x 16" (30 cm x 41 cm).

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Step 1: Drawing in pencil If you are adept at drawing, simply make a pencil sketch of your still-life straight onto your gesso board. If you could use some help with the drawing stage, you may like to try the following method. Make a black and white copy of your colour photo to use for tracing. Enlarge your photo until it is the same size as your gesso board and print it out on thin, nonglossy paper. Take some carbon transfer paper and tape it to your board, colour-side down, so that the whole board is covered. Now take your paper printout of the black and white photo and lay it, picture-side up, on the carbon paper. Tape the edges down so it won’t slip. Now take a ballpoint pen and go over all the outlines of the objects in your still-life. If you want to put in shading in order to get a better understanding of what you will be painting, that’s fine. When you remove the picture and the transfer paper you should have a reliable drawing of your objects to start you off. If there are some missing lines, put them in in pencil.

Step 2: Outlining in ink Next take an artist’s waterproof black ink pen and go over the outlines with ink. Do make sure you use waterproof ink or it will run and ruin your painting. When the ink is fully dry just wipe off all the pencil and carbon marks with a cloth dipped in turpentine.

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Step 3: Applying a red ground colour Now apply the ground cover using a bright red acrylic paint. Here I used Naphthol Red. Paint a solid coat of your acrylic red over the whole of your gesso board, using just enough water to make it spread. Your ink lines should still just show through.

Step 4: Painting with white egg tempera Now comes the stage of painting with white egg tempera, using water as the medium to dilute it. You will need a very fine (no. 0 or 1) top-quality sable brush for this work. This stage requires close observation of the objects you are painting. You will be ‘sculpting’ your painting with your small brush, using tiny strokes to capture the three-dimensional quality of your subject matter. You are painting the light as it falls on each of the objects. It will take patience and practice, but it is at this stage that your artistry and observation will start to bring your painting to life.

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Step 5: Applying a yellow glaze When your painting is dry, prepare the next coating which is a yellow glaze, made of oil paint thinned with a painting medium of half linseed oil and half Damar varnish. You can choose which yellow you prefer, but I used Cadmium Yellow here. I thought Lemon Yellow would be a bit too delicate and Yellow Ochre a bit heavy for this subject. On your palette, squeeze out as much of your chosen yellow as would cover a toothbrush and beside it squeeze just a pea-size amount of Titanium White. Carefully add a small amount of the white to your yellow. You need to do this very cautiously. Too much added white creates a pasty look and spoils the effect; not enough white and the yellow will look too thin, like cellophane toffee paper. Don’t mix too much paint to start with, it takes practice to get it just right.

Next add your oil-painting medium, adding only a few drops, just enough to help spread the paint. You can add a little more as needed. When it comes to spreading the glaze on your picture, there are two ways of doing this. You can use a big brush but this will need more painting medium to get it to spread and that means it will take longer to dry. I prefer to apply the glaze with the side of my hand. I put a little of the mixture on the picture and thump it in an up-and-down motion with the side of my hand to spread it. Don’t smear the paint sideways or it will pick up any irregularities in the board and look patchy. If you thump it on it will look totally magical and flawless (opposite).

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Step 6: Painting with white egg tempera After the yellow glaze has dried, which might take a couple of days, you need to go over your painting for the second time with white egg tempera diluted in water. This time try to improve your painting aiming at the loving detail achieved by the Old Masters.

Step 7: Applying a blue glaze Next you are going to apply a blue glaze with a small bit of white in it to lighten the blue. You can choose which blue you would like. Each blue creates a different effect. Manganese Blue has a very gentle effect, so I have used it here. French Ultramarine makes the picture more severe, as if you are painting by moonlight An interesting idea would be to have several paintings on the go and compare the effects of different blues, remembering always to add a little white to the blue. The blue glaze holds everything together.

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Step 8: Painting with white egg tempera Now for your third layer of egg tempera. Once your blue glaze is perfectly dry, you are ready to apply the final layer of egg tempera, when everything has to be modelled to perfection.

Step 9: Adding the oil Colours The next stage is my favourite part, though it takes practice. You will need to put on your colours in little local glazes. At first you may feel in despair when you see that you have lost the beautiful harmony of tonal values achieved with the blue glaze, because now everything seems to clash. Take out your colour

photograph and study it carefully. Each individual object has to be glazed with colour just as you did the big glazes over the whole picture before. The photo will help you study the tones of the different elements and choose your paints accordingly.

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Step 10: Finishing of the liquid. I emphasised it with a dark transparent green mixed with black. I outlined the red flowers – Cadmium Scarlet – in a darker red – Alizarin Crimson – so they stand out against the background. I picked out the leaves and stems in a lighter green.

By carefully comparing your colours in your still-life or in your colour photograph you can restore the harmony and balance of the colours. As you complete this stage, here are some things to look out for. Pay particular attention to edges. Where a flower or a leaf is lighter than the background, make it slightly more light so it stands out. The same thing if it is darker: slightly increase the darkness. See how I have highlighted a few leaves for special attention. This gives a certain drama to the painting.

As you finish, take a fresh look at your background. Would a slightly darker glaze around the edges of your painting create a kind of spotlight on your still-life? That might create a bit of drama that would make the objects stand out. As you practise using this technique it will open your eyes to tonal values and how much they can contribute to the beauty and integrity of a painting.

If you are using a transparent dark, do not allow a single touch of opaque paint get mixed up in it, otherwise it will lose its glow. You can see in the wine glass in my demonstration a wonderful dark at the top

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Using a Gold Leaf Background You may be intimidated, as I was, by the thought of trying to deal with paper-thin sheets of gold, but working with gold leaf is now much easier than in those days. Gold leaf is now sold in booklets (as are silver, copper and bronze.) Each sheet has a waxed paper backing, so you transfer the metal onto the surface of the painting by rubbing the backing with a spoon or a finger.

Gold backgrounds were a powerful feature of the van Eycks’ paintings. The painters of the Renaissance found that the gold coins in circulation at the time could be hammered into very thin leaves and spread over a large surface. If the leaves were laid on a red ground colour and then burnished with special tools, the effect was wonderfully rich and glowing, almost like solid gold. It needed enormous skill to cope with these delicate leaves of gold, which could float through the air and had to be captured and pinned down. The material was too expensive for a single flake to be wasted.

‘The Adoration of the Mystic Lamb’ by Jan van Eyck – detail of Virgin with gold-leaf background

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Using the back of a metal spoon, or your finger, smoothly transfer the gold on to the red board, checking that every part of the sheet has been pressed down firmly – otherwise there will be gaps where you

forgot to press. If you have a large amount of gold to apply, make sure your gold edges slightly overlap, so you don’t have gaps.

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Here are the steps to using gold leaf to create a background: 1.

2. 3. 4.

5. 6.

Make sure your gesso board is extra smooth by giving it an extra rub-down with fine-grade sandpaper. Draw your picture in pencil on the board and ink the outlines in black waterproof ink in the usual way. Decide where you want your gold leaf to go: don’t waste it on places that you will be painting over later with oil paint. Mark these areas so you can see the marks through the red ground coat. Apply a ground coat over the whole board using a bright red shade of acrylic paint mixed with a little water. Bright red is the most flattering colour to put underneath gold, making it look warm and rich. When the red ground coat is dry, apply your three-hour gold glue thinly over the surface that you want to cover. Then wait three hours. Now carefully place your gold leaf, still on its transfer sheet, gold side down, to the glued areas.

7. Let it dry thoroughly. If you have bought sheets of real gold, there

is no need to apply varnish, the gold will never tarnish. (If you went for copper or bronze sheets instead, a good metal varnish must be applied. Silver is particularly vulnerable to discolouring so I have stopped using it at all.)

8. Complete the rest of your painting following the usual steps.

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I found that gold leaf carried with it a kind of majesty that suited religious or classical themes. My first painting with gold shows my little son posing as a Christ-child. I found that the gold background seemed to need an echo of gold around the painting, so I painted a gold pattern on the frame. Gold powder mixed with my painting medium (half linseed oil and half Damar varnish) was the most successful for that purpose.

‘Christ-child’ by Brigid Marlin

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My next painting was inspired by W.B. Yeats’ poem ‘Leda and the Swan’. I surrounded the painting with the words of the poem in gold ink calligraphy to complement the gold background.

For the lettering I used gold ink and a special calligraphy pen. Ordinary calligraphy pens get clogged up, so you must use a special pen for this work.

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Painting a Still-Life: Learning from Jan Van Eyck

‘Leda and the Swan’ by Brigid Marlin

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‘The Garden of Earthly Delights’ by Hieronymous Bosch

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Chapter 4 ART OF IMAGINATION: LEARNING FROM HIERONYMUS BOSCH Hieronymus Bosch (1450–1516) used the techniques that had been developed by the van Eycks. His own inventiveness was channelled into the subject matter of his paintings. He wrote above one of his weird drawings: ‘Poor is the mind that always uses the inventions of others and invents nothing himself.’ His extraordinary visionary paintings were underappreciated for centuries but are much admired today. Bosch was one of an extensive family of painters named van Aken. His real name was Jeroen (Jerome) van Aken, but he renamed himself ‘Hieronymus’ (the Greek version of Jerome) and ‘Bosch’ (meaning ‘woods’), thereby distinguishing himself from his clan He was very religious and was admitted into a select religious group called ‘The Brotherhood of Our Lady’ to whom he donated his painting of ‘St John on Patmos’. What the brotherhood made of the strange creature in the corner is not recorded – it is said to be a self-portrait. There was a mischievous streak in Bosch that just had to come out.

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‘St John on Patmos’ by Hieronymous Bosch

‘St John on Patmos’ – detail

Bosch was inspired by Columbus’s discovery of a New World and in his paintings he liked to imagine what a totally different world might look like. He painted nudes gathering giant strawberries from trees, cherries as big as heads and heads made of fruit. ‘Garden of Earthly Delights’ – detail

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‘Garden of Earthly Delights’ – detail

His extraordinary fantasies gain power by being painted in exquisite detail and, despite the often horrific subject matter, they have a strange beauty. He often painted transparent things – see the sphere (above) he created to hold two lovers, and the cylinder emerging from a giant fruit made into an object of horror by the introduction of a large black rodent. A curious feature of Bosch’s technique is that he adds an indigo blue to his black colours, which adds to the sinister effect.

Bosch is credited with inventing the first psychological paintings, and he was so ahead of his time that it was only after the writings of Freud and Jung that his paintings began to be fully appreciated. His carefully observed detail, distorted and twisted into fantastical objects, has inspired many artists today. ‘Garden of Earthly Delights’ – detail

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TECHNIQUES IN ART OF IMAGINATION LEARNING FROM BOSCH Bosch was a close observer who was able to capture the real world in all its detail. He took that reality and distorted it to serve his own imagination and express his strange visions. His paintings inspired me because that was what I wanted to do, but I found it difficult to move from painting what I saw in front of me to painting what was in my head. I found I could not let go of reality. An exercise I devised helped me to liberate my imagination: I took reality and distorted it before I painted it. I experimented using distorted reflections as seen in mirrors, in windows, even in spoons. Gradually I lost my inhibitions and felt able to paint what I saw in my head.

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‘Intuition, Mind and Emotion’ by Brigid Marlin, Mische technique

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I got braver in my colours too. After a visit to Kuwait I painted a panorama of the desert and used my new skill at distortion by making the pipes of the oil refineries come forward to become boxes or coffins. ‘The Rod’ by Brigid Marlin, Mische technique

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Photograph of St. Mark’s Cathedral, Venice

One day I was looking at pictures of St Mark’s Square in Venice and I suddenly pictured the churches turning into balloons and flying away. I have no idea where that vision came from or what, if anything, it meant, but I desperately wanted to paint it. The problem was how.

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Exploring the shadows

Looking at the reflections of the photos in the bauble helped me understand what it would look like if a church turned into a balloon and I was able to draw several convincing church-balloons. Then of course I needed the balloons to cast a shadow. Again, using my imagination alone did not produce a convincing result. I knew I was going wrong. Finally, I built up a construction of wax and toothpicks to create a threedimensional depiction of the balloons, shone a strong light on it and captured the shadow. It was not at all how I had imagined the shadow would look but put in place it looked authentic.

I tried drawing St Mark’s turning into a balloon using my imagination but it was not convincing. I’ve heard other artists say that the problem with a visionary painting is that you always know when you are going wrong, but you are never sure that you are going right until the very end. I could see that this approach was going wrong. Tolkien once wrote that art from the imagination ‘must have the inner consistency of reality’. Remembering that, I tried to think of a way of creating a distorted reality that I could paint with accuracy and detail. I tried various reflective objects and finally settled on a silver Christmas tree bauble to get the distorted roundness I was looking for.

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Finally, when the painting had reached the blue glaze stage, I had to decide on the colours. Often, paintings of a dream or nightmare are most effective if painted in nightmarish colours. But as this was a painting about Venice, my instincts were to go for soft Venetian pinks, greens and blues. I debated whether to change things but judged that I could get away with the same Venetian colours. Maybe it would add to the strangeness of the picture if the colours were soft and sweet. The painting now needed one strong accent of colour. I made the water a bright turquoise, using Monestial Turquoise as a glaze. This seemed to bring the whole picture together and it also emphasised the water element which is such a huge part of Venice. There was of course no way that water under a leaden sky would be such a bright colour in reality, which added to the dreamlike quality of the painting. Increasingly emboldened, I took away part of the buildings as if there had been an earthquake. That created more space, but led me to think about what else would have happened in such a disaster, and I painted in the people. At last the result began to look like that fleeting vision I had originally had. People often ask me what this picture means. I can only answer that if I could explain it, I wouldn’t have had to paint it.

‘Flight of the Churches’ by Brigid Marlin, Mische technique

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‘The Glorious Mystery of the Holy Rosary’ – detail from ‘The Mysteries of the Holy Rosary’ by Ernst Fuchs, Altarpiece in Church in Wien-Hertzendorf

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Chapter 5 ERNST FUCHS: REVIVING THE TECHNIQUES OF THE OLD MASTERS Ernst Fuchs (1930–2015), an artist in Vienna working after the Second World War, was greatly influenced by the art of Hieronymous Bosch. There were important parallels between the two: Bosch had grown up during the time of the Inquisition and Fuchs had narrowly escaped the concentration camp. They both had seen unforgettable horrors and understood the cruelty man could inflict on man. Inspired by Bosch, Fuchs mastered his techniques and went on to found the Vienna School of Fantastic Realism, a group of artists depicting their own inner worlds. He called his method of painting the ‘Mische Technique’. It comes from the German word ‘misch’ meaning ‘mixed’, because the painting is done in layers of alternating water and oil-based mediums, as introduced by the van Eycks. His images of his inner world are utterly compelling and, like Bosch, he painted with loving attention to detail and created beauty within his disturbing fantasies.

‘Passio (Skull with Eggs)’ by Ernst Fuchs, Fuchs Museum, Vienna

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‘The Transformation of the gods’ by Ernst Fuchs, Fuchs Museum, Vienna

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Ernst Fuchs: Reviving the Techniques of the Old Masters

Ernst Fuchs was my inspiration as a young artist. I had seen his work at an exhibition in London and wrote to him asking if I could learn from him. He agreed to let me work alongside him in his studio for two weeks. When I arrived at his studio in Vienna, I was overwhelmed by the beauty and power of his work and was determined to learn as much as I could in that short time.

‘My wife Eva Christina’ by Ernst Fuchs, Fuchs Museum, Vienna

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We started with the basics. He made a face at my paint-stained smock and the twisted tubes of paint in my paintbox. ‘You know,’ he said gently, ‘To be a great artist you must be like a chemist. Everything should be spotless and in order.’ His own white overall was pristine and his studio perfectly arranged. That made a big impression on me and I vowed to be less messy. I still take great pains to keep my brushes clean and my materials in good order, although I admit my studio is somewhat untidy and paint-spattered. Fuchs sat me down at a table in the corner of his studio, gave me a gesso board and placed a mirror at a right angle for me to draw myself. Apparently I would be doing a self-portrait. I wanted a bit more than my face in the picture, so I looked around and spotted a vase holding peacock feathers. I asked if I could have one of those, to make the painting more interesting. He laughed, ‘Yes, of course, this must be a special painting. Every painting should start out by being the best painting you have ever done!’ I thought you might find it useful if I reconstructed the steps I took to create my painting and shared with you what I remember Fuchs teaching me as I went along. I did the drawing in pencil straight onto the gesso and when it was done he gave me an India ink pen to go over the outlines. He shook his head when he saw my ink drawing; ‘You have made it too detailed’, he said, ‘But it doesn’t matter.’ India ink drawing

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‘Now we must cover it all in red paint,’ he said. I hoped my drawing would survive. As Fuchs coated the board with red paint, he said, ‘When you paint the next step – the white egg tempera against the red, it gives the effect of pale blue. You can see this if you spill milk on a red table – it looks pale blue. So gradually the painting becomes opalescent, like the bloom on a plum.’ He explained that this ground layer could be any warm colour, from ochre to a black-purple, but he personally preferred a bright red and that is what I have used ever since. The next day Fuchs showed me how to make my own white egg tempera, exactly the way I will describe in Chapter 7. When that was done, he brought the tempera to my table together with a container of water and a fine sable brush. He showed me how to apply the egg tempera in little strokes in order to ‘sculpt’ the objects. I couldn’t get the hang of this at first. If I used too much water it separated out into little droplets, but if I used too little the tempera stayed in little lumps and refused to flow. I found that you needed to mix the egg tempera with a little water until it had the consistency of India ink, and then it could be applied in the right way. White egg tempera on a red ground

When Fuchs showed me how to do it, his delicate strokes made my strokes look rough and crude. I had to try over and over until I could master the right way of painting. Finally the whole board was coated with the first layer of white egg tempera.

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Next morning, Fuchs greeted me with a smile. ‘It is good that you have come early,’ he said. ‘Many artists are lazy. They expect to succeed if they have talent, and nothing more. But talent is not enough. It is like a baby, if the mother does not feed it and look after it, it will die.’ The egg tempera had dried overnight, so he showed me how to put on a yellow glaze. He mixed yellow paint with a painting medium made of half linseed oil and half Damar varnish and added a little white. He covered the painting with a thin layer of this mixture using a soft brush, I asked why he had added white and he said, ‘It adds something mysterious, like a veil. If I only used the yellow, it would have no atmosphere.’ Now I had to go over the whole painting again with white egg tempera, bringing out the highlights. I was beginning to gain more confidence in applying the egg tempera with tiny strokes.

White egg tempera on a yellow glaze

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At this point, Fuchs showed me more of his work and explained what he had learned about the techniques of the Old Masters of the Netherlands. I was fascinated by the layers of egg tempera and glazes. He showed me how in some of his work he had left areas of the yellow glaze or even the red ground cover untouched and it looked beautiful.

‘Moses and the Burning Bush’ by Ernst Fuchs

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Next Fuchs showed me how to mix the blue glaze. This would be the final over-all oil glaze. He suggested Manganese Blue with a bit of Titanium White. Once that was dry, Fuchs told me to paint my whole picture in white egg tempera one more time. I was getting worried that I would not finish the picture before my time was up and I had to go home. As I got down to work, Fuchs told me that this step was my opportunity to perfect the modelling and needed the most careful painting yet, with the tiniest of brushstrokes.

Painting in egg tempera on blue glaze

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Ernst Fuchs: Reviving the Techniques of the Old Masters

Finally it was time for the oil colours to be applied. I found adding the colours was easy now – the painting was so carefully modelled and shaded already that painting on the colours became an easy task. Fuchs showed me how to put the colours on carefully, thin enough not to cover all the hard work done in the layers before, but bright enough to glow and finish the painting properly. It all seemed to flow together easily. I was leaving the following morning so the painting was finished just in time.

‘Self-portrait with peacock feather’ by Brigid Marlin

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Fuchs seemed satisfied with what I had done and advised me to leave the painting to dry overnight and collect it in the morning on the way to the airport. When I came to collect it and say goodbye he had a surprise for me – he had put my painting in a little gold frame. It was hard to say goodbye to this wonderful artist who had given me so much in teaching and in friendship. When I got home I created a number of paintings using the techniques Fuchs had taught me and experimenting with them to make them my own. I tried leaving some parts of the painting at the blue glaze stage as can be seen in ‘The Rose Garden’ (left).

I experimented with putting on the egg tempera in different ways, and in one portrait, ‘The King of the Underworld’ (opposite), I used in dots instead of lines. ‘The King of the Underworld’ by Brigid Marlin, Mische technique ‘The Rose Garden’ by Brigid Marlin, Mische technique

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‘Christopher – child into boy’ by Brigid Marlin, Mische technique

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I found I was reluctant to cover all the beauty of the different glazes and in this painting of my son (opposite) you can see how I have let the red ground, yellow glaze and blue glaze shine through in places.

Fuchs invited me to join him as a regular teacher in his annual summer camp in Austria and as I taught side by side with him I learned more and more myself.

Gradually I began to find my own way of using the technique to create both the pictures in my mind’s eye and the portraits that people started to commission (see below).

‘Francis Pakenham, 7th Earl of Longford’ by Brigid Marlin, Mische technique with gold leaf, House of Lords Collection, London

‘Portrait of J.G. Ballard’ by Brigid Marlin’ Mische technique, National Portrait Gallery Collection, London

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The Final Glaze It can be very interesting to experiment with the final colour glaze. You can create a magical atmosphere with the use of a cool glaze over a painting that might appear too warm in tone otherwise. A glaze in a warm colour can also be used to warm up a too cold painting, but this will not be so successful, as a cool glaze lends atmosphere to a picture, where a warm colour can close it in and make it look dirty. If your painting is thoroughly dry when you begin, you can try out the effects of different glazes, and if you don’t like them, you can wipe them off with a soft rag, but this must be done immediately, and to prevent any lingering colour from the glaze, give it another wipe with a bit of clear painting medium afterwards. I had been working on a painting of a girl in Venice and found that the yellows were getting too strong. I had long noticed that a colour glaze laid over a painting when it was dry had a different effect than if it was mixed in with the last colour. It seemed to float on top, and the previous colour would shine through as though seen through a piece of stained glass. So for a final glaze I mixed a delicate Cobalt Violet with a very tiny bit of Titanium White, and added it to the painting. Suddenly all the yellows turned into the most beautiful rich ‘Old Gold’ colours, which I couldn’t have achieved in any other way. It can be very inspiring to see what effects you can get using final glazes in this way.

‘Venetian Princess’ by Brigid Marlin, Mische technique

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Chapter 6 FELLOWSHIP AND FRIENDSHIP In this chapter I will show you how some of my artist colleagues and pupils have used the techniques I have been teaching you. Many Old Masters such as Bosch, van Ruisdael, Breugel and the van Eycks came from families of artists who gave them fellowship and support. Others like Rembrandt and Rubens found friends to work with. Most took pupils who worked side by side with them. Throughout art history you can find examples of how groups of artists came together to influence and support each other as they challenged tradition and introduced new ideas. When I was writing this book, I wrote to artist friends and former pupils who with me have embraced the techniques of the Old Masters of the Netherlands. They generously sent examples of their work so that I could show you how they have used the techniques to express their unique vision.

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‘Enlightenment’ by Robert Venosa

Robert Venosa I first met the late Robert Venosa in London when Fuchs suggested I go to his exhibition there. Later I encountered Robert and his wife Martina Hoffmann in Colorado where we became friends. Robert had studied with Fuchs and employed the Mische technique to create his iconic worlds where crystalline forms reflect the light. In this painting,

‘Enlightenment’, Robert has been very sparing of colour in the finishing-off step, allowing the white to gleam through. To get this extraordinary degree of luminescence requires the use of the very palest and thinnest of glazes to cover the final painting with egg tempera.

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Martina Hoffmann Martina learned the Mische technique from Robert and with him taught it all over the world. In her painting ‘Isis’ she too is sparing of colour, allowing the beauty of the blue glaze to provide a swirling magical setting for the rich skin tones of the goddess.

‘Isis ‘ by Martina Hoffmann, Mische technique

Oleg Korolev You can see how Oleg expresses that energy in the painting overleaf where a very dark background sets off explosions of light seen through a warm yellow glaze. This fantastical skyscape has strong echoes of Bosch and his strange worlds.

Oleg told me that what most impressed him about Fuchs was his energy. ‘Ernst used to radiate energy like an atomic reactor,’ he said. ‘Painting in his presence, it was easy to see the whole composition and not focus down too much on the detail. We need to know how to work with energy and how to focus it’.

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‘Divine Gloom’ by Oleg Korolov, Mische technique

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Amanda Sage I met Amanda Sage when she was working with Ernst Fuchs as his assistant. Amanda has developed a unique style, using spiralling lines and geometric forms to express her visions as seen in ‘Orphic Awakening’ (left).

Oscar Blanchard O’Neill Oscar is currently a student with me. He enjoys the sense of building his paintings up from a skeletal structure to a fleshed out finished piece, layer by layer. He said, ‘I don’t paint a face, rather I paint the light hitting it.’ He was 24 when he did this portrait of his father, influenced by the Rembrandt portraits we discussed together. He followed the simplified technique as used by Rembrandt, dispensing with the blue glaze steps and putting in translucent darks.

‘Orphic Awakening’ by Amanda Sage, Mische technique

‘Portrait of my father’ by Oscar Blanchard O’Neill

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Ailise O’Neill Ailise was not sure whether the Mische technique was for her. The patience and discipline required put her off, however she learned that the effort was well-rewarded: ‘The many layers and glazes taught me about the use of colour. I knew about complimentary colours but it was not until changing the glaze I could see how significantly colours influenced each other.’

‘Portrait of a girl’ by Ailise O’Neill, Mische technique

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Miguel Tio Miguel is a Dominican-American artist who was already very experienced when I first met him, but, as he explained, ‘Learning the Mische technique from Brigid Marlin was a cornerstone in my artistic life. Brigid said to me that it was going to take me around four years of practice to learn and explore its possibilities. It sure did. The application of this technique took my work to the next level and created a rich ground for great imagination and creativity. I grew as an artist and it added a new dimension to my paintings.’ In his painting ‘Inner Selfhood’ (left), Miguel uses the drama of a dark background to emphasise and balance the luminescence of the central pyramid of the composition.

Steve Snell Steve is one of my students and has an unusual approach to colour, which he applies in a few blocks of strong glazes. He was greatly inspired by the paintings of the Old Masters and this self-portrait deliberately references one by Jan van Eyck in which he too sports an enormous red turban. Steve says, ‘I am a down-to-earth type, but the Mische technique and its application have spiritual qualities that I fail to get by any other medium.’

‘Self-portrait’ by Steve Snell

‘Inner Selfhood’ by Miguel Tio, Mische technique

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Krisztina Lazar in my studio

Krisztina Lazar Krisztina has here painted an intensely realistic lustre vase surrounded by a dream of flowers. She told me, ‘The interesting thing I learned about using the Mische technique is that you cannot compromise on painting what you see. Not just what you think you see, but what you actually see.’

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‘Lustre vase’ by Krisztina Lazar, Mische technique

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‘Ghost Dog’ by Catherine McCarthy, Mische technique

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Fellowship and Friendship

Catherine McCarthy I first met Cathy many years ago when she was a teenager. She recalls the occasion, ‘I sat on the grass beside Brigid’s chair as she painted the blossom of our garden cherry tree. All afternoon I watched with fascination the confident delicate brushstrokes applying white egg tempera. The magic and beauty of the process engaged me completely’. 20 years later she tracked me down and joined my classes. Cathy’s subject-matter is down-to-earth but the egg tempera gives it a strange crystalline almost hallucinatory quality as seen in her ‘Ghost Dog’ (opposite).

Kathleen Scarboro Kathleen’s paintings combine a strong sculptural approach with a bold palette. She said she enjoyed the technique because ‘The precious jewel-like quality is reminiscent of the paintings of the Flemish Renaissance.’ The foundations for her painting ‘Life is but a Dream’ had been carefully laid by the time she completed the blue glaze step, as shown here (for finished painting see overleaf).

‘Life is but a Dream’ by Kathleen Scarboro, blue glaze step

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‘Life is but a Dream’ by Kathleen Scarboro, Mische technique

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‘Self-portrait with Totems’ by Liba Waring Stambollion, gold leaf and paint

Liba Waring Stambollion Liba is a Franco-American artist who studied the Mische technique with me and went on to teach it to others. In this painting she makes use of bronze

sheeting in a fantastical triptych with echoes of mediaeval religious paintings.

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Gary Burczak Gary studied with me and had this to say about the Mische technique: ‘A painting is made gradually by applying three primary colour glazes in a specific order, at each stage a tonal drawing of the composition is painted in using white tempera; in this way it is very similar to Renaissance techniques of establishing tonal

values in the composition over which the final colour glazes are laid. It is a long process that bears fruit with patience and time. What develops is a beautiful subtlety of tone and colour it would be hard to achieve any other way; paintings have a luminosity and tonal depth that is magical and full of beautiful surprises.’

‘Life’s Stars’ by Gary Burczak, Mische technique

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Marcus Usherwood Marcus came across my work online and asked if I would teach him. He immediately took to the Mische technique and used it to create works like this, dazzlingly bright with broad patches of barely veiled egg tempera giving a powerful impression of unearthly splendour.

‘Agnus Dei’ by Marcus Usherwood, Mische technique

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Chapter 7 MATERIALS AND METHODS MATERIALS Here is the list of the materials you will need. These are all available online or at specialist art shops. For example, L. Cornelisson & Son and Jackson’s Art in the UK stock everything here. There will be other suppliers where you live.

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MDF Boards

ork. ace for this kind of w rf su st be e th e ar ds Gesso boar u can ugh to take glazes. Yo ro o to e ar ds ar bo Canvas but they epared gesso boards pr yad re nt lle ce ex y bu buy unprimed boards to r pe ea ch is It . ive are expens plain how sso yourself. (I will ex ge ith w em th e im pr e and )). You need to buy th ds ho et (M 6 14 p at to do that ar ter one eighth to one qu ie d, ar bo of nd ki st e thinne y thicker and they ar An . ick th ) cm .6 -0 sizes. of an inch (0.3 ually sold in standard us e ar ey Th . le nd ha hard to 25 cm) and of 8" x 10"(20 cm x e on y bu u yo t es gg d. I su cm) size to get star te 50 x cm 0 (4 " 20 x one of 16"

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Materials and Methods

Palette knife

Gesso

Needed for mixing your egg tempera.

Damar Varnish and artist quality Linseed Oil

Rags You should be able to make these out of old cotton sheets or old tee-shirts. They are very useful for spreading paint in large areas, removing paint or wiping hands, so always have a supply of clean ones to hand.

You need these to make up your own oil-painting medium by combining half linseed oil and half Damar varnish.

Sandpaper For smoothing the coats of gesso. Fine grade wet and dry sandpaper is good.

Black waterproof ink India ink pens are very good, for example Faber Castell Artist Pens, one very fine and one a little thicker. Make sure that the ink is waterproof.

Frosted-glass muller and frosted-glass plate You need these for grinding your egg tempera. (Do make sure you always wash them immediately after use or they will be ruined.)

Transfer paper I use ‘Imagetrace’ by Artstat which gives assorted colours. The colour called ‘black’ is really a kind of grey and that is what I buy.

Brushes You must have at least one top-quality sable brush for details. Either a Da Vinci or a Winsor & Newton topquality Diana Kolinsky Sable. A no. 1 size is a good start, but if you enjoy detailed work you could add a no. 0 brush as well. Fine sable brushes are expensive and need to be looked after with care. Wash your brush carefully after each session in warm water using gentle soap, and stroke it round and round in the palm of your hand till the colour is all gone. When all the paint has been washed away, you need to restore the point. I do this by putting the brush between my lips and sucking the fibres to a point. You then lay your clean pointy brush down on a flat surface to dry. If you fling your brushes point downwards into a glass, even for a few minutes, they will lose their point and you will lose your brushes. You will also need a cheaper bristle or nylon brush for spreading paint – a no. 5 or 6 will do.

Turpentine Palette I use a large paper tear-off palette, so there’s plenty of space for mixing paints. Mine is 12" x 16.5" (30 cm x 42 cm). Tear off the top page and you have a clean palette in seconds.

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Acrylic and Oil Paints You can buy your paints in cheap and expensive form. For practising these new techniques, the cheaper varieties are fine. These may be marketed as ‘Student’ paints but some firms give them less obvious names. For example Daler-Rowney call their student paints Georgian, and Winsor & Newton call them Winton. The big difference is in the permanence of the paints as the student paints are more likely to fade with time. If you are going to put a huge amount of effort into creating a work of art you don’t want it to deteriorate within 50 years. The term ‘Artist quality’ doesn’t have much meaning. Look for paints described as ‘Professional quality’ if you want the best.

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The other colours you will need depend very much on what you are painting and how you like to use colour. I would personally add Alizarin Crimson and Monestial Green. Monestial Green is a very sharp, almost poisonous-looking green and needs to be modified before using, by adding a reddish colour such as Burnt Sienna to make it look like a green such as is seen in nature.

Starter Colours to buy Titanium white pigment in bag or jar for making your white egg tempera. An acrylic red for the red ground colour – Naphthol Red Medium or Red Oxide are good choices.

On the other hand, if you want to paint a startling colour, like the wine glass in my still-life, then it is perfect with the addition of a little Lemon Yellow to make a powerful Chartreuse.

Oil colours in tubes Titanium White oil paint for adding to glazes and for the finishing stage.

Optional

Lemon Yellow, Cadmium Yellow or Yellow Ochre for the yellow glaze and for the

If you want to try using metallic leaf or writing as described in Chapter 3, here are some materials you could buy:

finishing stage.

Manganese Blue or Ultramarine Blue for

Gold Leaf and other metallic sheets

the blue glaze and for the finishing stage.

These are widely available in art shops, but they are expensive, especially the pure gold leaf. Bronze is a nice warm colour and cheaper. I don’t buy silver anymore because it is so prone to tarnish. I recommend trying a starter pack of whatever metal you are thinking of trying, to see whether this is for you.

Burnt Sienna, Burnt Umber and Ultramarine Blue for putting in the darks and for the finishing-off stage.

Cadmium Red, Permanent Rose, Burnt Sienna, Burnt Umber for finishing face and hands.

Gold leaf glue

Ivory Black – Black is an extreme colour although it

This is sold as ‘Oil gold size’ and several brands are available. I buy the three-hour kind, in 50 ml jars.

is irreplaceable when needed, eg for eyelashes, pupils of eyes, certain dark, but it can be very ugly when used to shade colours, making them look dirty rather than in shadow.

Gold ink There are lots of brands available and a range of special calligraphy pens to apply it with.

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METHODS A. How to prime a board with gesso Gesso is a primer made of chalk, white pigment and glue. It has been used for centuries to provide a smooth surface that will absorb paint. The Old Masters used it to prime their wooden panels and you will need it to prime your MDF boards.

Start with applying a very thin coat of gesso using a fairly large hog-bristle brush. This first coat will dry very quickly but further coats will take some hours to dry. Apply the second coat a bit more thickly, using lengthwise strokes. When it has dried, sandpaper lightly and apply the third coat with width-wise strokes. Sand again and apply a fourth coat length-wise. Give the board a final sanding and it will be finished. The whole process, including drying times, usually takes me two days so I like to make up several boards at the same time.

You can buy ready-made gesso boards but it is cheaper to make them yourself. I recommend using the same old clothes when doing this since gesso is very good both at sticking to your board and to your clothes. It’s good idea to prime your boards outside if you can, to limit the mess.

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B. How to make egg tempera medium First make a painting medium by mixing two tablespoons (30 ml) of linseed oil with two tablespoons (30 ml) of Damar varnish. Pour the mixture into a small jar and label it ‘Painting Medium’.

Take another sterilised jar and measure into it two tablespoons (30 ml) of your beaten egg, two tablespoons (30 ml) of your painting medium and four tablespoons (60 ml) of cooled boiled water. Shake this mixture up, clearly label it and keep it in the refrigerator when not in use. If you don’t take it out of the fridge for more than a few moments at a time, and you keep the lid screwed on tightly, egg tempera medium will keep for up to a year. It will separate, but a good shaking is all it will need.

Then break the egg into a larger sterilised jar with a lid and shake hard till thoroughly mixed (see below).

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Materials for making egg tempera. The Damar varnish and linseed oil have been mixed together in the jar labelled ‘Painting medium’.

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C. How to make egg tempera Now thoroughly wet your bit of sponge, squeeze the water out, and push it down to the bottom of your small container. The damp sponge will help keep the egg tempera from drying out. Now scrape the ground egg tempera into the small container. As soon as you have scraped the last bit of egg tempera into your pot, take the frosted-glass plate and muller and IMMEDIATELY wash and scour them with a metallic pad; otherwise the Damar varnish in the mixture will dry onto the frosted-glass surface. If you let that happen your plate and muller will be useless for grinding and you may as well throw them out.

For this you will need the egg tempera medium you just made, some sterilised jars with lids, a small container with a tight-fitting lid and a piece of foam rubber cut to the size of the small container and about a quarter of an inch (0.3 cm) thick. It should fit snugly when pushed to the bottom of the container. You will also need your frosted-glass plate and muller and a palette knife. Put one tablespoon (15 ml) of your egg tempera medium on to your frosted-glass plate and add one tablespoon (15 ml) of Titanium White pigment. Mix slightly with your palette knife. Next take the frosted-glass muller by the handle and grind the powder pigment and egg medium together until all the crumbs of pigment are gone and it is completely smooth.

When you have washed, dried and put away your frosted-glass plate and muller, paste a label on the egg tempera container and store it in the fridge beside your egg tempera medium. Make sure no one will mistake the contents of either for food, e.g. by putting the jars in a childproof box with a warning label. Please note, because you will be keeping the egg tempera out of the fridge for extended periods while you use it to paint, it will only keep for about two weeks. After that it starts to grow mould. When you make a new batch, cut a new piece of foam for the container.

Make sure you grind the edges of the mixture and also scrape the edges of the muller to get any crumbs of pigment sticking to its edges.

Frosted-glass plate and frosted-glass muller

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Mixing with palette knife

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Grinding the pigment

Scraping the muller

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Scraping the ground egg tempera off the plate

Filling the small container

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D. The Mische Technique RECAPPING THE STEPS OF THE MISCHE TECHNIQUE:

1.

Drawing in pencil

2. Outlining in black ink 3. Applying a red ground colour 4.

Painting in white egg tempera

5. Applying a yellow glaze 6.

Painting in white egg tempera

7.

Applying a blue glaze

8.

Painting in white egg tempera

9.

Finishing in oil colours

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1. Drawing in pencil HOW TO TRANSFER AN IMAGE ONTO YOUR GESSO BOARD If you want to use an existing sketch or photo as the basis of your painting, you will need to transfer it onto your gesso board. You could do this by copying it freehand in pencil. Another way is to take a piece of transfer paper and cut it to fit the board. Lay it colourside down on the board and fix it in place with some sticky tape so it doesn’t shift. Now take your photo or drawing (which must be on thin paper), also cut to fit the board, and place it over the transfer paper with the image on top. Tape this down too. Now take a ballpoint pen or firm pencil and go over the outlines of your picture, pressing hard enough to transfer the image onto the board. When you remove the transfer paper you should be able to see the outlines well enough to complete the image in pencil. If there are a few lines missing, fill them in. How much detail you add is up to you. I like to use this stage to work on my vision for the completed work, so I tend to put in a lot of detail.

Refining a transferred image with pencil

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2. How to outline your drawing in waterproof black ink When the drawing is done, the next step is to go over the outlines in waterproof black ink. You can buy waterproof black ink in bottles and use a very fine brush to apply it but I recommend artist’s pens already filled with ink. Get one very fine and one medium fine pen. After the ink has dried, take a rag dipped in turpentine and use it to wipe away all the pencil lines and smudges leaving just the black outlines.

Waterproof black ink artist’s pens

Going over the outlines in waterproof black ink

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3. How to apply a red ground colour smooth even finish. Dip your brush in water continually to spread the paint, and squeeze more paint onto your board as you need it. The red should be the same colour throughout, without paler patches or white blotches. You need to do this process fairly quickly as acrylic is a quick-drying paint.

Put some water in a small bowl, take your largest brush, and squeeze an inch or so (2.5 cm) of your chosen shade of acrylic red – usually Napthol Red Medium or Red Iron Oxide – directly onto the middle of the gesso board. Dip your brush in the water and spread the paint in even strokes up and down the panel aiming at a

4. How to paint in white egg tempera I find that artists who are new to this technique sometimes have trouble grasping how to paint in white egg tempera. It is absolutely not about drawing the outlines in white. Nor is it about capturing the general shape of things in white. It is all about painting the light as it falls on your object. In effect, you are painting the light with white, sculpting the objects and capturing their reflections (see opposite page). The close observation this requires is the essence of the technique. After each glaze goes on, you repeat this process in ever more detail. One of the reasons that the egg tempera white shines out in the finished picture is because it is made of different materials than oil glazes. It never blends with the oil glazes but stays there crisply separate. This gives the technique its power and is also the key to why the colours stay bright and clear for so long.

Two wrong ways to paint in white egg tempera . . .

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. . . and one right way to paint in white egg tempera

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Painting the light

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5. Applying the yellow glaze

6. Painting with white egg tempera

To create an oil glaze you choose the oil colour you want (usually with a tiny bit of white added), and then thin it with oil-painting medium on your palette, stirring it with your brush to see what the consistency is like. It needs to be thin enough to spread thinly across the area you want to glaze.

This second egg tempera coat needs to be laid on with just as much care and attention to detail as the first. This is a painstaking and laborious process, but the results are worth it.

7. Applying the blue glaze

When you think you have it right, test it out on a small area, applying the glaze with your finger or a brush. If it is too thick add a little more painting medium. If it is too thin and runny, wipe it off and use less painting medium next time. When you have the consistency just right you can spread it with a brush or apply it with the side of your hand. Either way, get it beautifully smooth by thumping with the side of your hand. Use an up-and-down motion. Do not slide your hand as this will smear the glaze. If you think it is looking a bit too thick, thump, wipe your hand with a cloth and thump again to remove excess glaze. If you take off too much, put more paint on with a brush and thump it again until you are happy with it. After each overall glaze is applied, another layer of painting with white egg tempera follows.

Use the same method as for applying the yellow glaze.

8. Painting with white egg tempera This third layer of white egg tempera is your last chance to make the details perfect before the colours go on.

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Thumping on the yellow glaze

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9. Finishing with oil colours When your painting is nearly finished with, the three overall glazes having been applied and all three layers of egg tempera painted, you will need to put in the oil colours. You do this by applying thin glazes to small areas. I do this with a small brush or my fingertip, seeing if I like the effect and wiping it off if I am not happy. As long as the painting is perfectly dry before you start this process, you won’t do it any harm by this trial and error approach. You can add final touches of white egg tempera as necessary for highlights, as long as you cover them with a thin oil glaze, remembering that uncovered egg tempera will rapidly deteriorate.

Finishing with small glazes

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Varnishing Wait six months before varnishing. I recommend a matt varnish rather than a gloss varnish, because if the varnish is too shiny people can’t see your work properly. Put it on with a wide brush eg a 1.5" (4 cm) soft nylon brush. Do the

varnishing in a bright light so that you can check every part is being covered. Paint it on in a smooth but not over-loaded layer. One layer is enough. Watch out for stray brush hairs, and take them out. Leave it several days to dry.

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Framing ur painting. Try to match your frame to yo ance-style picture, then If you have painted a Renaiss ches will bring out its a car ved frame with gold tou dern one, find a good beauty. If your subject is a mo contemporary frame for it. ng are:

A few general rules for frami 1.

2.

3.

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ck. It is too powerful Never frame a painting in bla being accepted in and may prevent your painting an exhibition. esn’t dominate the Try to choose a frame that do ents it. Let it bring painting, but sof tly complem background in your out maybe the colour of the er in the centre. painting rather than a red flow complicated frame, A simple painting needs an un can benefit from an whereas a detailed painting rtance. ornate frame, to give it impo

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A FINAL WORD FROM ONE OF MY STUDENTS There is no doubt that the Mische technique gave me a sense that I was in some way connected to the Italian painters of the ‘Quattrocentro’. Not that anything I produced was in any way comparable but that didn’t matter because I felt a certain calm and sense of closeness to some creative force, something I would imagine many painters past and present feel; think of a monk working on an illustration for a manuscript. Seeing the image emerge in white like a ghost waiting for colour, was like giving it the breath of life. As an atheist this was as near to believing as I was going to get. Surely painters like Fra Angelico saw God’s hand in their work. As a down-to-earth type it’s difficult to say but the Mische technique and its application have spiritual qualities I fail to get by any other medium. Sadly all that is in the past, age plays its part but it did enrich my very working-class life so thank you, Brigid, for that inspiring flight! – Steve Snell

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‘Wreck-quiam’ by Steve Snell, Mische technique

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Glossary of terms calligraphy

frosted-glass muller

The art of writing, using a pen or brush to form beautiful letters, numbers and symbols.

Glass implement used as a pestle to grind and mix pigment.

camera lucida

frosted-glass plate

Drawing device that uses a prism to project an image directly onto paper so that it can be traced (Latin for ‘light chamber’).

An even grinding surface used with a muller to mix pigment.

gesso

camera obscura

White primer consisting of chalk mixed with white pigment and glue.

Device used to assist artists to create reproductions of scenery. Light from the outside world is admitted through a small hole into a dark room and projected onto a table or wall (Latin for ‘dark chamber’).

gesso board A board coated with layers of gesso on which to create artworks.

dark ages

glaze

Term formerly used to describe the period of Western European history from c. 500-100 ce, also known as the Early Middle Ages.

Thin transparent coating of oil glaze or paint; various layers are applied in creating works using the Mische technique.

en plein air Open-air painting.

golden age

etching

Period of Dutch history roughly spanning the seventeenth history, during which the Dutch nation enjoyed great wealth and cultural and scientific acheivements. Some of the greatest artists including Pieter Bruegel the Elder, Jan van Eyck, Rembrandt and Hieronymus Bosch flourished at this time.

Form of printmaking where lines are incised into a metal plate using acid.

fantastic realism Group of post-war artists working in Vienna, including Ernst Fuchs, who painted dreamlike fantasies in a realistic manner.

luminescence A glowing quality as if light were streaming from an artwork.

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Glossary

medium

renaissance

The material with which an artwork is created, for example paint, ink, watercolour, etc.

European historical period spanning the end of the Middle Ages until the early seventeenth century, during which there was a flourishing of art and culture.

middle ages

tempera; egg tempera

Period of European history from the fifth century following the fall of the Roman Empire to the beginning of the Renaissance period (c. 1500).

Coloured ground pigments mixed with a water-soluble medium, often egg. Characteristic of European artists in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, after which it gave way to oil paint.

mische technique Painting technique named by Ernst Fuchs and inspired by the Dutch Old Masters in which an artwork is built up in alternating layers of water- and oil-based mediums.

transfer paper A sheet of paper with one side coated with carbon. To transfer an image, the paper is laid, carbon-side down, between the original and any surface, and traced over. The impression of the pen creates marks on the surface and reproduces the image.

old masters Collective name for painters working in Europe between the Renaissance and c. 1800, and including some of the most famous figures in art history including Leonardo da Vinci and Caravaggio.

translucence The quality whereby light partially passes through an object so that the image on the other side is indistinct.

opaque Opposite of transparent, i.e. unable to be seen through.

turpentine

panorama

Oil used as a solvent for paint and varnish. Favoured by artists as a paint thinner and brush cleaner.

A sweeping view of a subject; in art this particularly refers to a landscape or wide-ranging scene such as a battle.

pigment Natural material that contains colour; heated, sifted or ground to be mixed with a binder to hold the particles together and form a paint.

quattrocentro Also known as the Early Renaissance – a period of major artistic development during the fifteenth century in Italy.

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Index camera lucida...........................................................16 camera obscura........................................................16 carbon transfers...................................................... 70 ‘Christ-child’ (Marlin).........................................84, 85 ‘Christopher – child into boy’ (Marlin).............. 116, 117 clothing...................................................................15 colours see dark colours; oil colours community....................................................... 13, 121 composition..............................................40–1, 49, 69

References to images are in italics.

A acrylic paint.......................................... 17, 32, 62, 144 ‘Adoration of the Mystic Lamb, The’ (Van Eyck)............................ 64, 65, 66–7, 68, 81 ‘Agnus Dei’ (Usherwood)........................................ 139 Alizarin Crimson............................................... 79, 145 anatomy..................................................................31

D

B

Damar varnish.................................................. 20, 143 dark colours.......................................................20, 55 depth...................................................................... 62 ‘Divine Gloom’ (Korolov).................................... 124–5 drawing........................................................16, 154–5 and hands............................................................31 and landscapes.................................................... 50 and still-lifes........................................................ 70 drying time.............................................................. 20 Dutch ‘Golden Age’................................................. 39

balance.............................................................. 41, 49 Blanchard O’Neill, Oscar........................................126 blue glazes.............................................56, 57, 75, 112 and application..................................................162 bone structure..........................................................31 Bosch, Heironymous........... 13, 89–90, 92, 94, 103, 121 ‘Brotherhood of Our Lady, The’............................... 89 Bruegel the Elder, Pieter......................... 13, 43, 45, 121 brushes........................................... 18, 20, 23, 71, 143 brushstrokes...................................18–19, 23, 108, 109 Burczak, Gary.........................................................138 Burnt Sienna................................... 23, 24, 52, 60, 145 Burnt Umber................................... 20, 24, 35, 55, 145

E egg tempera................................................. 13, 15, 60 and making.................................................. 147–52 see also white egg tempera ‘Enlightenment’ (Venosa)........................................ 122 ‘Extensive Landscape with a ruined Castle and a Village Church’ (Van Ruisdael)................44 eyes...................................................................23, 24

C Cadmium Red............................................ 24, 60, 145 Cadmium Scarlet................................................35, 79 Cadmium Yellow......................................... 54, 72, 145 calligraphy.............................................................. 86

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Index

F

H

faces see portrait painting final glaze............................................................... 118 ‘Flight of the Churches’ (Marlin)............10, 98–100, 101 ‘Flora’ (Rembrandt)............................................30, 35 flowers...............................................................68, 79 frames............................................................. 85, 167 ‘Francis Pakenham, 7th Earl of Longford’ (Marlin)... 117 French Ultramarine.................................................. 23 frosted-glass muller................................................143 frosted-glass plate..................................................143 Fuchs, Ernst............13, 103, 105–6, 108–9, 111–14, 117 and community.......................................122–3, 126 see also Mische technique

hair..........................................................................24 hands.................................................. 28, 30–5, 36–7 ‘Harvesters’ (Bruegel the Elder).................................45 highlights.................................... 19, 23, 24, 34, 60, 79 Hockney, David........................................................11 Hoffman, Martina..................................................123 Hooker’s Green....................................................... 62 horizons................................................... 43–4, 48, 49 ‘Hunters in the Snow’ (Bruegel the Elder).............. 42–3

I imagination.......................... 13, 89–90, 92, 94, 97–100 Indian Yellow......................................................60, 62 ink.........................................................17, 143, 156–7 and hands........................................................... 32 and landscapes.....................................................51 and still-lifes........................................................ 70 ‘Inner Selfhood’ (Tio)............................................. 130 ‘Intuition, Mind and Emotion’ (Marlin).....................95 ‘Isis’ (Hoffman)...................................................... 123 Ivory Black................................................. 20, 35, 145

G ‘Garden of Earthly Delights, The’ (Bosch)........................................... 88, 91–2, 93 gesso boards...............................................13, 15, 142 and priming........................................................146 ‘Ghost Dog’ (McCarthy)..................................134, 135 glazes...................................................... 13, 17, 19, 65 and application.............................................. 162–3 and final............................................................. 118 and Fuchs....................................................109, 112 and landscapes........................ 54, 56, 57, 59, 60, 62 and still-lifes................................................... 72, 75 and Van Eyck brothers.......................................... 65 and yellow......................................................20, 33 see also blue glazes gold ink..................................................................145 gold leaf................................... 13, 80, 82–3, 85–6, 145 ground colour..........................................................17 and application..................................................158 and Fuchs...........................................................108 and gold leaf........................................................ 83 and hands........................................................... 32 and landscapes.................................................... 52 and still-lifes.........................................................71

J ‘Jewish Bride, The’ (Rembrandt)........................... 36–7

K ‘King of the Underworld, The’ (Marlin)............. 114, 115 Korolev, Oleg..........................................................123

L landscape painting.............................. 39–41, 43–6, 48 and demonstration......................................... 49–60 and exercise......................................................... 62 Lazar, Krisztina.......................................................132 ‘Leda and the Swan’ (Marlin)....................................87

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Index

Lemon Yellow................................................... 60, 145 ‘Life is but a Dream’ (Scarboro).......................... 135–6 ‘Life’s Stars’ (Burczak)............................................ 138 linseed oil................................................... 20, 65, 143 lips..........................................................................24 ‘Loops of Her Hair’ (Marlin)...................................... 9 ‘Lustre vase’ (Lazar)................................................ 133

O’Neill, Ailise.........................................................129 ‘Orphic Awakening’ (Sage)...................................... 126 outlining...................................... 17, 32, 51, 70, 156–7

P palette...................................................................143 palette knife...........................................................143 ‘Passio (Skull with Eggs)’ (Fuchs)............................103 ‘Peasants Dancing’ (Rubens)................................ 46–7 pencil............................................................16, 154–5 and hands............................................................31 and landscapes.................................................... 50 and still-lifes........................................................ 70 Permanent Rose......................................... 24, 35, 145 photography......................................................16, 49 and still-lifes............................................. 69, 70, 79 ‘Portrait of a girl’ (O’Neill)...................................... 128 ‘Portrait of J.G. Ballard’ (Marlin)............................. 117 ‘Portrait of my father’ (Blanchard O’Neill)............... 127 portrait painting..............15–20, 21–2, 23–5, 26–7, 117 and Fuchs...........................................................106 and Rembrandt................................................... 28 see also hands proportions..............................................................16 Protestantism.......................................................... 39

M McCarthy, Catherine..............................................135 Manganese Blue...............................56, 57, 62, 75, 145 materials.......................................................13, 141–5 MDF see gesso boards mediums............................................................20, 72 methods.......................................................... 146–52 Mische technique................... 13, 103, 122–39, 153–65 Monestial Green............................................... 60, 145 Monestial Turquoise...............................................100 ‘Moses and the Burning Bush’ (Fuchs)..................... 110 ‘My wife Eva Christina’ (Fuchs)...............................105 ‘Mysteries of the Holy Rosary, The’ (Fuchs)..............102

N Naphthol Red............................................71, 145, 158 ‘Nicole’ (Marlin).................................................. 26–7

R

O

rags.......................................................................143 Red Iron Oxide...............................17, 32, 52, 145, 158 Rembrandt..................................13, 15, 17, 18, 19, 121 and colours..........................................................24 and glazes............................................................ 20 and influence......................................................126 and later portraits................................................ 28 rhythm..................................................... 45–6, 48, 49 ‘Rocks in the Ring of Kerry, Ireland’ (Marlin)......... 60–1 ‘Rod, The’ (Marlin)...................................................96 ‘Rose Garden, The’ (Marlin).................................... 114 Rubens, Peter Paul................................. 13, 46, 60, 121

oil colours....................................... 24–5, 65, 144, 145 and application..................................................165 and Fuchs........................................................... 113 and hands........................................................... 35 and imagination.................................................100 and landscapes......................................... 59, 60, 62 and still-lifes...................................................76, 79 oil glaze..............................................................13, 20 Old Masters....................................................... 11, 39 see also Bosch, Heironymous; Bruegel the Elder, Pieter; Rembrandt; Rubens, Peter Paul; Van Eyck, Jan; Van Ruisdael, Jacob 174

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Index

Van Stockum, Hilda..................................................41 varnishing..............................................................166 Vasari, Giorgio........................................................ 28 ‘Venetian Princess’ (Marlin)............................. 118, 119 Venosa, Robert.......................................................122 ‘Vessels in a Choppy Sea’ (Van Ruisdael)....................48 Vienna School of Fantastic Realism................... 13, 103 Viridian................................................................... 62

S Sage, Amanda........................................................126 ‘St John on Patmos’ (Bosch)...............................89, 90 St Mark’s Cathedral, Venice.............................. 98–100 sandpaper..............................................................143 Sap Green............................................................... 62 Scarboro, Kathleen.................................................135 ‘Self-portrait’ (Rembrandt)................................. 14, 29 ‘Self-portrait’ (Snell)............................................... 131 ‘Self-portrait with peacock feather’ (Marlin)............ 113 ‘Self-portrait with Totems’ (Waring Stambollion)..... 137 shadows.................................................19, 23, 24, 99 and hands.......................................... 28, 33, 34, 35 and landscapes...............................................44, 49 skin.............................................................. 19, 24, 33 Snell, Steve..................................................... 130, 168 stained glass............................................................ 65 still-lifes........................... 69–72, 73–4, 75–6, 77–8, 79

W walnut oil................................................................ 65 Waring Stambollion, Liba.......................................137 white egg tempera............................. 18–19, 22, 23, 65 and Fuchs................................................ 108–9, 112 and hands......................................................33, 34 and landscapes......................................... 53, 54, 58 and painting method............................. 158–61, 162 and still-lifes................................................71, 75–6 ‘Wreck-quiam’ (Snell)........................................168–9

T tension............................................................... 41, 49 Tio, Miguel............................................................130 Titanium White........................... 24–5, 35, 60, 62, 145 Titian...................................................................... 28 transfer paper........................................ 16, 143, 154–5 ‘Transformation of the gods, The’ (Fuchs)............... 104 turpentine.........................................................17, 143

Y Yellow Ochre...................................20, 23, 33, 35, 145 and glaze application..........................................162 and landscapes.................................................... 62

U Ultramarine Blue.............................................. 24, 145 ‘Undine’ (Marlin)...................................................... 6 Usherwood, Marcus...............................................139

V Van Eyck, Hubert................................................65, 80 Van Eyck, Jan..................................13, 65, 80, 121, 130 Van Ruisdael, Jacob...............................13, 44, 48, 121

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Acknowledgements To Shirley Jaworska for her encouragement and expert help. To Andy Goldsmith of apg video for his excellent photography and his patience. To Michael and Anni Fuchs for their kind permission to reproduce the work of their father, Ernst Fuchs To Jayne Parsons for her interest and encouragement To my niece Kate for her advice and my sons Christopher and Desmond for making sure I had food through the time of Covid.

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