Artist’s Shed

After reading James Gurney post, “How did John Singer Sargent (1856-1925) find a painting subject?”

Sir Edmund Gosse recalled:

"He was accustomed to emerge [from the house where he was staying in Broadway, England], carrying a large easel, to advance a little way into the open, and then suddenly to plant himself down nowhere in particular, behind a barn, opposite a wall, in the middle of a field. The process was like that in the game of musical chairs where the player has to stop dead, wherever he may happen to be, directly the piano stops playing. The other painters were all astonished at Sargent never ‘selecting’ a point of view, but he explained it in his half-articulate way. His object was to acquire the habit of reproducing precisely whatever met his vision without the slightest previous ‘arrangement’ of detail, the painter’s business being, not to pick and choose, but to render the effect before him, whatever they may be.”

One of the challenges that I face is trying to find a great scenes with majestic distance and “golden” light. After reading this post I brought my set up outside and sat on the bench of my picnic table and started painting. Then half way through the clouds broke and the sun came out and made the beautiful lines of light shining through the tree and shed and just catching the tops of the shrubs.

Here the link to James Gurneys post

Artist’s Shed
7x5 oil on board