Turner was really skilled at painting buildings, but he has been widely criticized for his people and their anatomy. In reality, he knew well how to paint people and he did live drawing all his life, but he didn’t seem to put much effort and focus on them in his paintings. Just look at this picture. Do you see the odd proportions of that woman's face?
In England, the most collected painter was Italian Canaletto and he had a great influence on Turner. As a homenage, Turner painted Canaletto into this painting of Venice (look at the guy to the left with the easel in the picture below).
Turner went three times to Venice and after Italy his palette changed as he added more light colors and reflections. “The sun is my God” came to be his mantra and he tried to capture the sun light in different ways in his paintings. In many of his paintings, you can see the temperature and the time of the day just by looking at the sky.
Turner went three times to Venice and after Italy his palette changed as he added more light colors and reflections. “The sun is my God” came to be his mantra and he tried to capture the sun light in different ways in his paintings. In many of his paintings, you can see the temperature and the time of the day just by looking at the sky.
Below you see a painting of Germany. One of the group members from the guided tour was from this specific place in Germany and he told the rest of the group that the mountains in the background don’t exist. Also, the castle is and was in ruins at the time Turner lived. Artistic freedom I’d say :)
Turner was very tight with his money even though be became a very wealthy man. It was the various engravings of his landscape paintings that made him rich. With the money he earned, he bought back some of his favorite paintings he had sold earlier in his career. One of them was the painting below; Frosted morning from 1813. A nice detail is the little girl holding her father's pray around her neck. Yet again, look at the disproportions of her face.
People who have seen Turner work, says he worked on various paintings at a time and he went with the brush charged with a specific color from one painting to the next. I'd love to have seen that!
You always see the end result of what artists create, which is great but not enough. Especially since it takes months of work to finish just one piece. Think about how much more you would understand of the painting if you could see the process behind it. Also, the process is something beautiful in itself, don't you think? Shaping, forming, changing, evolving...It is not only the destination but the journey that matters!
You always see the end result of what artists create, which is great but not enough. Especially since it takes months of work to finish just one piece. Think about how much more you would understand of the painting if you could see the process behind it. Also, the process is something beautiful in itself, don't you think? Shaping, forming, changing, evolving...It is not only the destination but the journey that matters!