Oil Painting: Copying John Constable

Hello fellow steemers

Today I would like to share an oil painting copied from the great English artist, John Constable (1776 - 1873).

After Constable: Weymouth Bay, Oil on canvas, 2016

Constable famously painted directly from nature, a practice later popularized by the Impressionist movement in France. This aspect of his painting practice contributed to the amazing vitality and high drama present within his work while also influencing his technical application which tended to be lose, impasto and largely unblended.

In this study I have tried to capture or imitate some of the characteristics that make Constable's paintings so endearing. My process was mostly quite straight forward, firstly I put down a basic tone across the whole canvas, one that was mixed with a quick drying medium to both thin out the paint and help it dry quicker. After the canvas was dry I drew in the basic forms: the horizon line, the rising bluff, the arc of the bay and the dark rocky foreground. I then mixed blue with red to create the dark colors, and put this tone down, whilst trying not to blend the color into other areas. After cleaning my brush I mixed and applied my lighter tones mostly occurring in the middle of the composition, to imitate the sun dramatically shining through the clouds. Finally I mixed applied my highlights, in this case it was mostly white, used for the clouds and the foam of the crashing waves. Once again my highlights were applied loosely and I was conscience not to blend colors into one another.

Below you can see the original painting, housed at the Victoria and Albert Museum, London.

Weymouth Bay, John Constable, 1816, Oil on millboard, Victoria and Albert Museum, London

I hope you enjoyed this brief insight into the work of John Constable. I would encourage anyone interested in his work to see his complete collection at https://www.john-constable.org/

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See you next time,

Byron