14 November, 2017

Tonalism - Just a Taste

'Cloud Kissed Land' - roughly 4x10in
My 1st attempt at painting en plein air in the vein of tonalism


It was fairly recently that I came to appreciate tonalism. I'm not exactly sure where I found out about it, but right away I recognized it's bearing a similatude to the beloved impressionist movement, and very much liked it's calmer treatment of subject matter. Actually, it immediately reminded me of the ambient music genre(Brian Eno, Aphex Twin, etc...), insofar as that the relaxed and studied pieces did not seem to vie for attention, but could be engaged thoroughly by the viewer for their poetic treatment of subject or appreciated in the background by their lending of mood to a room.

Tonalism was a movement of the late 1800s into the early 1900s that was characterized (generally) by it's amalgamated synthesis of landscapes rather than site specific rendition, translated through a mid/low tone and value palette in the diffusion of atmosphere rather than with a strong emphasis on detail.


Blogs that go over this subject exceedingly well include:





One contemporary tonalist I appreciate is:



And a useful list of artists in the movement:

No comments:

Post a Comment