International Prize Winners
All the Prize Winners in our International Artist Magazine Challenge No. 116
All the Prize Winners in International Artist magazine Challenge No. 116, Landscapes
About the Atmosphere
Hyperrealist painter Joseph Byrne is all about the mood and details in his painting. His goal though is not to paint the scene as it appears, but to incorporate the “air” and feeling of a place. This all begins with Byrne going to the place himself and experiencing the world before him.
He says, “When I was younger, I drove my Harley to the location. The freedom of my bike added to the experience. I camp out at a lot of the sites. I’ve slept with on frost on the ground. I’ve slept in barns. I’ve seen the early morning sun. I wait for the proverbial ‘golden hour,’ whether it’s dawn or dusk. I study it until it’s burned into my mind.”
While he is on location, Byrne takes in everything that is around him to use as reference when he back in the studio. He says, “I do quick color sketches in watercolor that
I use for color reference. You can’t trust a photo for that. A photo is just a roadmap. I’ve got branches and twigs stuck in bottles in my studio. I photograph surrounding vegetation for detail. I use tissue overlays of pencil and I maneuver them to develop the composition. I develop a master composition with a grid. Then I scale it to size.”
He compares the experience to taking in his surroundings to a short story by Mark Twain called
The Professional. “He became a river boat pilot. He said he couldn’t ride as a simple passenger after that. He always looked at the river through the eyes of a river boat pilot,” says the artist, who lives in South Carolina. “I do the same as an artist. Color in the sky, texture on a tree, the air that surrounds me. It all inspires me to the point that I can’t wait to get in front of my easel.”
Then, at the end of it all, when the work is complete, Byrne does his best to make the viewer of his artwork share in his experience. He says, “When standing in front of one of my paintings, I want the viewer to have the feeling they can walk into it. I want you in the painting. I want the vines to stick to your clothes. I want you to breathe the air around you. I want you to feel the temperature. I want you to stand where I stood.”
My Inspiration
If you have ever sat under these huge water oaks, one cannot help to be inspired, and intimidated. These huge trees, with their massive twisted and distorted limbs, were once prized by early shipbuilders both here in the States and in Europe. I called this painting Old Timer, I should have called it Survivor, being that it has been laid over by past hurricanes. Half of its limbs are now gone, but it still projects an impressive image. This is Shem Creek in Mount Pleasant, South Carolina. When I visit my friend there, I’ll sit under this tree
having my morning coffee and just see. We look, but do we see? I’ll observe all the marsh critters, the dead or dying spartina grass, new growth struggling to claim its place in the sunlight.
My Design Strategy
First off, I wanted to create depth by pushing back the background trees by muting the colors. I needed this for contrast of the forward water oak branches and leaves. I wanted to empathize the main tree trunk, which is leaning into the painting and the broken limb, which is jutting to the right, stops short of leading you off the canvas, by doing so, it still holds as the center of interest. Being that the trunk is the center of interest, I had to define the details, the bark texture, pruned libs, the shadows and broken limb. All the other details that I painted, I wanted you to explore and keep you interested.
My Working Process
I start by doing on-location thumbnail sketches and quick, small color notation sketches. I’ll take photos of the details of surrounding vegetation and the desired composition, which I always change and refer to later. I then do a scaled gridded master sketch, changing what needs to be changed to work with my design. I then sketch in the painting using a charcoal pencil. When doing this, the grid helps me from getting lost and confused. I tone the entire canvas, but with different colors in all areas. Next is the blocking-in stage. Some areas I’ll go darker, cooler or warmer and I’ll use this for my buildup of colors. I handle acrylics like egg tempera and this works for me.
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