Looking at the painting above, it is hard for anyone to not marvel at the mastery of the technique or to deny the power of the entity that Winslow Homer (1836-1910) portrays here – the mighty sea. This painting, which once held two male figures, was rearranged by Homer a few years after it was painted to take out those male figures, which had been standing among the rocks on the left side of the painting. By removing them, Homer moved this painting away from the dictates of the narrative style of the 19th century toward more of what is seen in modern painting, a simple focus on the elements themselves. Homer lets the sea tell its own story. He does it with the powerful clouds of foaming sea spray which contain a variety of whites, blues, and lavenders. The waves that rush the rocks are anything but placid as they heave upwards in icy blues and blue-grays, streaked with white, sandy yellows, and hints of lavender. Such waves come from strong winds that accompany what New Englanders call a Nor’easter. This phenomenon of violent wind and sea is not a thing of the past. It caused New Jersey to issue a state of emergency from January 31 to February 3, just this year – 2021! With that knowledge, one looks at this painting not as a relic of the past but as a part of the daily news.
What is hard to believe is that Homer, who grew up in New England, an area of seafaring communities, did not begin to paint his marine paintings until 1873, well into his career as an illustrator and masterful painter of watercolors. He had been exposed to marine painting during his stay in France in 1867, where his paintings of simple folk life done en plein air were more akin to the Barbizon school. While his concern with light was a similar interest as that of the Impressionists, Homer sought to find his own path, on his own. Famously, he said that artists “should never look at pictures” but instead “stutter in a language of their own. en.wikipedia.org
This painting, like the Northeaster above, is in oil paints on canvas. The painting is not just famous for its presentation of a rather stormy sea, but for being a painting that got divided into two paintings because of severe criticism about there being too many figures on the beach. The artist divided off a large group of beach goers into a smaller painting, leaving just a few tiny figures on the shore in this painting. The two paintings are now owned by two different museums; however, they were reunited in 2019 at the Cape Ann Museum (see article here theartnewspaper.com). Once again in this painting, masterful handling of sea and clouds can be seen. Particularly of interest are the colors with which Homer enlivens the sky. He fills the sky with pinks, violets, blue-grays, and golds, which all serve to represent the fight between sunlight and storm clouds. He handles the waves in a very solid manner, using the force and weight of oil paint to carry his message of foaming waves set against stormy skies.
Homer’s “stuttering” in marine painting began after a visit to Gloucester, Massachusetts. He became quite accomplished after his stay in England in a Northumberland seaside village (1881-1882). The change in his work was noted upon his return to the U.S. with it being said that he had moved into “high art.” That high art along with his knowlege as an illustrator and mastery of watercolor led Century Magazine to send him to the Caribbean in 1884 to illustrate an article, “Midwinter Resort,” designed to entice people to take winter vacations in the Bahamas, Bermuda, and other Caribbean locales. Certainly his beautiful renderings helped make their appeal. Here his skills came to the fore in a different way, as the lightness of the crystal blue Caribbean called for a lighter treatment. Enter Winslow Homer, the watercolorist.
Here we can see quite a contrast in the way the paint expresses the scene. As opposed to the stormy heavy waters of the Atlantic as they slap the shores of the New England coast, the waters here around Bermuda are clear and light. The colors chosen by Homer for the sea and for the sky are rather the same as though one is just a continuation of the other. The stark white of the Salt Kettle houses grabs the eye right away as the brilliance of the white captures the brightness these structures have in the sunfilled environment. The watery reflection adds to it to make those houses an eye-catching counterpoint to the blue of sea and sky. Speaking of the sky, Homer does not give up the use of his color variations for the clouds. Just as in the paintings of the northern seas, there are pinks and subtle gray-violets in those clouds, counterbalanced by the pink and gray in his representation of the sands.
Sloop Bermuda has much the same technique. The sky and the water share in blues, with the sky tending more toward a grayish blue. The indication is that a storm may be brewing, though the pink in the clouds indicate some distant trace of sunlight muted to this soft pinkness by the building storm. Once again, the center piece of the painting is white, a sloop with its sails being taken in. The focal point of the white boat is aided by its white reflection in the water, water with touches of the gray of those threatening clouds. Homer’s use of watercolor for these paintings gives them a fresh quality, like a breeze off the warm waters of the area. The fluidity of his brushwork creates with a few strokes the idea of moving waters. One can feel the boat bob in the sea as those billowing clouds continue to form.
Winslow Homer started his career as an illustrator. As such, he used graphite pencils to precisely draw the figures and other things in his illustrations. Homer carried that technique over to his watercolors by drawing in graphite and then painting over it. While the sky once again is very fluid with clouds moving rapidly in the distance and the sea waters ripple gently in free form, the boat and the young man are quite precisely and accurately presented. This combination of the fluid and the precise creates a contrast that has visual punch. The viewer can focus on the narrative of the superbly represented young fisherman going about an ordinary task and still feel the movement of the sea and sky that surround his activity. Solidity and fluidity work hand-in-hand to make the viewer sense all the elements of the scene.
This same technique of using watercolor over graphite is seen here in this painting of two men on a canoe in a rapids. The men and their canoe are solidly represented in an environment that is complete fluid. Not only do the waves peak and roll, but the treatment of the forest is loosely done with one tall tree that seems to move in the wind. The rigidity of the men’s backs indicates that they are threading their way through these rapids carefully with their attention fully focused. The white caps of the waves are multicolored in creams and pinks, and streaks of blue exist amid the turbulent white.
This beautiful piece shows the power of that use of graphite to give the appropriate tones of gray to the night sea and sky. The color palette is simple, blue, gray, white and blackish gray. In this sea of deep blue-gray waters matched by a similar, slightly lighter sky, the balancing contrast in white comes from the moon and its reflection on the water. The light of the moon even highlights a deep blue tone in the ocean as it is more of a guiding light for the boats than the far distant lighthouse on the land beyond the schooner that sits in that moonlit water. It is a simple painting that captures the romance of the sea which Homer obviously felt deeply.
Homer would spend the last 25 years of his life in his home which overlooked the sea in Prouts Neck, Maine, painting the sea and becoming the greatest American painter of the 19th century.
For more on Homer’s career and to see one of his greatest paintings, The Gulf Stream, go to “Winslow Homer: Life and Death Upon the Waters – The Gulf Stream” in the Art Blog at vernellestudio.com.
Other interesting articles on Homer include: “Watercolors of the Caribbean by Winslow Homer” byronsmuse.wordpress.com “Winslow Homer (1836-1910)” an essay by H.Barbara Weinberg of the Metropolitan Museum metmuseum.org For his complete works, go to Winslow-Homer.com
All works used in this post are in Public Domain.
For more on Marjorie Vernelle, see the author page at amazon.com/author/marjorievernelle or go to the Art Blog at vernellestudio.com
Wine Tours for the Artsy Set
Well, there is nothing like learning from the masters, and that is what we can do if we pay attention to Winslow Homer’s artistic adventures in the Caribbean. He took the opportunity to show his skills in watercolor, as that medium was perfect for capturing the blues in the waters off the Bahamas and Bermuda. For those of us who paint and for all who are just lovers of art, there are ways to go to different locales, participate in unusual art offerings, and enjoy tasting the local wines and foods.
Of course, the natural place for those of us in the U.S. to start is California, where we find the Three-Day Artists’ Itinerary proposed by the City of Calistoga (see link above). It gives the details of a variety of places to visit, as well as lodgings.
In particular, for those who like to paint, the Mountain View Hotel has artists’ cottages equiped with painting materials (easels, paints, and brushes) so that those who are inspired by their surroundings in the beautiful Napa Valley can create their own paintings of this memorable area.
The area along the valley’s Silverado Trail offers another possibility in a four-day tour called Napa Valley for Art Lovers, which focuses on the art works in the area, as well as the wine and food. One’s locus is the Auberge du Soleil, high in the hills overlooking vineyards, where after a hard day’s art and winery touring, one can settle into the comfort of a Mediterranean style cottage and dine in a world class restaurant.
Of course, while Napa and Somoma Valleys are well known, they are not the only wine producers in California with lovely valleys and beautiful local scenery. The Monterey Penninsula has both vast stretches of inland fields with vineyards and the beauty of the Pacific Ocean as found in Monterey and Carmel-by-the-Sea. Carpe Travel says it best when it states, “Monterey Wine Country: Go for the Chardonnay and Stay for the Pinot.” The title of that article gives you a strong suggestion about what the most celebrated wine varieties of that area are.
It is well known that Carmel is a village filled with beautiful vistas and charming shops and art galleries. In “Paintings and Pinots: Art and Wine in Carmel-by-the-Sea,” Amy Hertzog presents the many different opportunities to enjoy the art and the wine of the region. (seemonterey.com)
If one wants to drive south along the coast of Big Sur, down to the Santa Barbara area, another place of beautiful vistas, one can visit the Santa Ynez Valley and go painting in the vineyards. There are scheduled events throughout the dry season (May – October), and if the scheduled events don’t fit your itinerary, you can arrange a private painting session. artspotonwheels.com
Now with COVID-19 restrictions loosening, there is always the possibility of going overseas on a painting or art touring trip. French Escapade has something for every artistic dreamer. From online classes in its Virtual Interactive Workshops to Plein-Air Painting Workshops in Europe and California (Santa Barbara). Of course, these excursions include gourmet food and wine just to round out the experience.
Lastly (at least for this post), why not paint and taste wine and great food while taking a river cruise? Uniworld Boutique River Cruises brought back its Floating Paint and Wine Cruises in June of 2020. Their boat, the River Queen, cruises the Rhine River, which flows through a variety of areas producing famous wines, think Moselle, Gewütztraminer, and Riesling. And, oh by the way, there are also fabulous castles on the Rhine which can be seen as one cruises, paints, and enjoys the fruits of the vine. See cruiseweb.com.
Whether it is doing some painting yourself or just being an art enthusiast in general, there are lots of interesting ways to be artful and experience the joy of wines and good food. Bonne peinture et bon appetit!
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©marjorie vernelle 2021
Coming Soon: Art History C.S.I.: What Happened to Nefertiti’s Eye? Plus Wine Among the Ancients.
Yes, the left eye is missing and the question remains why? Did the royal sculptor, Thutmose, leave that for the finishing touch but never got to complete it? Did the eye pop out when the statue fell from its shelf and into the sands? Was it a subliminal suggestion about the nature of the queen? Did she have an eye disease that destroyed the left pupil? There are theories upon theories, some more likely than others and some improbable but possible. One thing for sure, the members of that royal court drank wine, as did much of the ancient world. Of Art and Wine susses out information on both the eye and the wine.
