{"id":398,"date":"2026-07-24T02:30:23","date_gmt":"2026-07-24T02:30:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mfrancismccarthy.art\/?p=398"},"modified":"2026-07-24T02:30:23","modified_gmt":"2026-07-24T02:30:23","slug":"a-landscape-painters-guide-to-52-weeks-on-the-easel-easel-talk-52","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mfrancismccarthy.art\/?p=398","title":{"rendered":"A Landscape Painters Guide to 52 weeks on the Easel &#8211; Easel Talk #52"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\nhttps:\/\/youtu.be\/VE_xP3Di4qE\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">I\u2019ve been in this studio since 2011, roughly 15 years now. We\u2019re over 10 years into the channel, and this 52nd Easel Talk marks a full year of weekly conversations about painting.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">The Foundation: Process Over Mastery<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Painting isn\u2019t hard, and it isn\u2019t easy. It\u2019s somewhere between the two, leaning toward wherever your head is at. If you want a good time making images, it\u2019s not hard. If you want to touch the hem of people like Georgia Inness, it\u2019s hard.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The foundational pillar is <strong>having a process<\/strong>. Mine starts with finding inspiring reference, photos, generated images, things that strike a chord with you. But here\u2019s the thing: inspiring reference alone doesn\u2019t make good paintings. Bad paintings have great references too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">What matters is that the scene resonates with you, and you\u2019re responding to the composition inherent in it. You need to be cognizant of the issues and problems it might have. This kind of awareness comes through experience. You can\u2019t read a book on composition and walk away knowing how to paint well. You just can\u2019t.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Consistency Builds Everything<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">I\u2019ve shown up every week for a year. Maybe I had a little illness here or there, but for the most part, I got in here and did my thing. It\u2019s good to be consistent. It\u2019s good to persistently go after things, especially if it\u2019s in alignment with what you want to do.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Painting is what I want to do. Teaching is my avocation. I love to impart hard-won knowledge.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">You\u2019re the Only You<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">You\u2019re the only person that\u2019s ever going to be like you. You don\u2019t need to worry about what\u2019s come before or what\u2019s going to come after. You can express yourself now. If you work at it, your expression of what you are will be something other people want to tune into.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Attention is the currency of our age, and it\u2019s a limited resource. But don\u2019t get too hung up on reception. Create your wonderful paintings and keep going. Just create. You care about your last painting and how your next one\u2019s better, and that\u2019s what gives your life meaning.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Mastery Is a Journey, Not a Destination<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Don\u2019t spend time going, \u201cOh mastery, mastery, I\u2019ve got to get there.\u201d Masterpieces are byproducts of the process. They almost never result from sitting down thinking, \u201cYeah, this is going to be my masterpiece.\u201d Usually they just happen because the stars aligned. You had the right energy. You were conscious that day. You had an amazing reference.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The journey is the point. The paintings are artifacts of the journey. They\u2019re the rings of a tree building up and up and up. I sell some work, but I create a lot more paintings than I sell. This is the beauty of it, it\u2019s a process, it\u2019s a journey.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">If I go a few days without painting, I start feeling weird and not good. Get yourself to that place. That momentum will carry you forward. It will give your life immense amounts of meaning.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">The Practice: Paint Every Day<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Do one a day. You want involvement with life. You want to make things happen. You want meaning. Paint every day and throw the bad ones away.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">If you\u2019re only doing three paintings a year, you\u2019re going to be loathe to throw away the bad one. You\u2019ll get attached. Meanwhile, you\u2019re in a negative reinforcement loop: \u201cYou suck. You suck, bro.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">But if you do a painting a day, it\u2019s easy to throw it away. You\u2019ll have a big stack of good paintings. People will come around and say, \u201cWow, I didn\u2019t know you were so good.\u201d Yeah, you\u2019re good, because they don\u2019t see the crap.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">All those bad paintings, you\u2019ve got to make them. You\u2019ve got to get them out. The experience of making that bad painting is incredibly valuable.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Materials Matter, But Not How You Think<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">You don\u2019t need the finest materials. As a matter of fact, when you\u2019re starting out, make paintings with what you have. But don\u2019t go too cheap on brushes. Don\u2019t grab the office Depot brush or the dollar store Chinese brush. Those won\u2019t work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">A decent bristle filbert costs six or seven bucks and works great. You\u2019ve got to know what to buy and try things out.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Super cheap brushes will make you struggle. Dollar store painting knives with no flexibility are bad news. But don\u2019t think you need the very best of everything.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>A limited palette is where I recommend starting:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Titanium White<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Ivory Black<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Cad Yellow and Cad Red (or substitute Alizarin Crimson for the red)<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>A blue (Ultramarine, Phthalo, or Prussian)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Then add:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>Burnt Sienna<\/strong> (so useful for landscape painting, earthy reds are everywhere)<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Yellow Ochre<\/strong> (challenging to mix with a limited palette, which is good for you)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Don\u2019t think there\u2019s magic in any individual tube. What matters is pigment. Crappy student paints don\u2019t have enough pigment, they\u2019re filled with filler. It\u2019s a false economy. Dealing with quality paints early on will make you strong.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Technique: Vary How You Hold Your Brush<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The best advice is to try different things. Play around. Have fun with it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Don\u2019t expect to match a master stroke for stroke. That doesn\u2019t work. What works is learning to change how you\u2019re holding the brush. At first, like driving, you\u2019re conscious of everything. Push the gas. Push the brake. Turn the wheel. But a lot of that becomes automatic. The same happens with brushwork.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">A Filbert has a little toe that acts like a small brush. It has a bevel, that\u2019s another size brush. You can use the flat or even that area. A lot of things you can do with your brush. Your brushwork will be completely unique to you.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Modulation: Always Be Modulating<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>ABM: Always Be Modulating.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Whatever you\u2019re painting, a tree, a cloud, grass, you want colors moving. Cool and cooler greens, bluish greens on one side moving into warm orangey-yellow greens. Modulate from warm grays into cool grays. Modulate from warm whites into cool gray-whites.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">A cloud moves from warm grays into cool grays. The blue sky itself modulates from darker, more indigo tones at the top down to more ochre, hazy, whitish blue at the bottom. Always be modulating anything you do in your painting.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Landscape-Specific Insights<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Sky Payoff:<\/strong> Make sure the sky is going to pay off. The area of most contrast in your painting is basically where the subject will be, usually your darkest forms or vertical forms. Lightest sky, darkest tree. Push your lightest lights usually right up against the tree. Don\u2019t worry it too much, but do realize that\u2019s a good way to go.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Grass and Soil:<\/strong> Don\u2019t go with the dull, boring stuff in the reference. Charge it up. You can saturate any color more as long as your whole painting isn\u2019t saturated. Maybe you\u2019ve got a big expanse of grass. Try putting a slash of red in the middle. See what happens. You can paint over it with green later, but it\u2019ll be way different than green, green, green, green, green.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Work with Your Reference:<\/strong> Mess around with your reference in the digital world. Juice it up. Put a color cast into it. The masters didn\u2019t have this ability, but they would have used it if they had.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">That said, no reference image is perfect compositionally. You\u2019re always the arbiter of what does and doesn\u2019t end up in your painting. It\u2019s your world you\u2019re making.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Finding Your Voice<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">You have a style when you can\u2019t escape it. Don\u2019t worry too much about style. Worry about making your paintings. Make a lot of them. Your style will coalesce. People will see it, maybe before you do.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Analyze what you respond to in the compositions and structures of the masters. Drill down to the soul of it, the meat of it, the structure. That\u2019s what carries the day, not the surface techniques or colors, but the structure that makes the work vital and enduring.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Embrace Limitations<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Limitations are strength. For me, my number one limitation is oil paint. I don\u2019t worry about acrylic, pastels, pencils, charcoal, watercolor. I\u2019ve messed with all that stuff, but it\u2019s a distraction. It\u2019s already difficult enough to build mastery and facility with oil paint to make good work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Another limitation: landscapes. I do figures and things, but landscapes are challenging enough for me.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">I don\u2019t mess with soft brushes. I work with hog bristle. You do what you want. If you want to express yourself as an artist, that\u2019s fine. But if you want to get into mastery and create a body of work with substance, start limiting yourself.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">The Production Mindset<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">I used to manage a manufacturing operation. A production mindset doesn\u2019t mean the work has less meaning. It means I prep 10-20 boards instead of one, so it\u2019s not an impediment to expressing myself. I clean all the brushes at once instead of one at a time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">I don\u2019t have multiple canvases lined up on the easel. What I\u2019m talking about is economizing on the things you can do all at once, so you have more time to express yourself. That\u2019s what painting\u2019s all about.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">You Are Completely Fresh<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">There\u2019s no person that\u2019s ever been like you. Looked like you. Talked like you. Thought like you. Dreamed like you. Or will paint like you.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Artifacts are great because they\u2019re tangible, real things in the real world. That\u2019s why I keep making them. By your very nature, by the very nature of your existence, you are a fresh wrinkle. That\u2019s what matters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">The Year Ahead<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">I\u2019m going to continue to paint. I\u2019m going to continue to record my process and pass along insights. Same stuff all the time: painting trees, skies, paths, rivers, streams, the occasional rock. We\u2019ve got things to say about all of it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">There are more topics in the book we haven\u2019t discussed. There\u2019s more to say about painting. I don\u2019t know how many skies I\u2019ve painted, thousands. Does that mean I\u2019m done? Does that mean I don\u2019t want to paint another sky? No, it doesn\u2019t mean that at all.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Take good care of yourself. Stay out of trouble. And fight the power.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong><a href=\"http:\/\/mfrancismccarthy.art\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Mike&#8217;s New Site<\/a> | <a href=\"https:\/\/mfrancismccarthy.substack.com\/subscribe\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Substack<\/a> | <a href=\"https:\/\/www.landscapepainter.co.nz\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Painting Website<\/a> | <a href=\"https:\/\/www.landscapepainter.co.nz\/mailing-list\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Mailing List<\/a> | <a href=\"https:\/\/www.landscapepainter.co.nz\/products\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Store<\/a> | <a href=\"https:\/\/abyssm.bandcamp.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">My Music<\/a> | <a href=\"https:\/\/www.landscapepainter.co.nz\/donate\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Support<\/a> | <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/channel\/UCS6NSbrJaICWu2Oztt_PXeA\/join\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Members Area<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>M Francis McCarthy, Your Painter in Residence<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I\u2019ve been in this studio since 2011, roughly 15 years now. We\u2019re over 10 years into the channel, and this 52nd Easel Talk marks a full year of weekly conversations about painting. The Foundation: Process Over Mastery Painting isn\u2019t hard, and it isn\u2019t&#46;&#46;&#46;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":400,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6,7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-398","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-painting","category-talks","rsfv-has-video"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mfrancismccarthy.art\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/398","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mfrancismccarthy.art\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mfrancismccarthy.art\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mfrancismccarthy.art\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mfrancismccarthy.art\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=398"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/mfrancismccarthy.art\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/398\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":402,"href":"https:\/\/mfrancismccarthy.art\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/398\/revisions\/402"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mfrancismccarthy.art\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/400"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mfrancismccarthy.art\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=398"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mfrancismccarthy.art\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=398"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mfrancismccarthy.art\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=398"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}