Drawing, Color, and the Art of Restraint Good morning, afternoon, or evening. This is your painter in residence, Michael Francis McCarthy, occasionally known as M. Francis McCarthy. Yesterday I painted a coastal scene—really a sky painting with a little peninsula worked in. I’m...
The color of your board is one of the most critical decisions you’ll make Welcome to Easel Talk #38. Today’s talk is about ground color—the color of the board you’re painting on. It sounds simple, but I’m telling you, it’s one of the...
Negativity is an incredibly destructive force in all of our lives. We all wrestle with it. It’s a problem in the world and a problem in ourselves, but it can be something that you get the better of instead of it getting the...
Lessons in Color, Scale, and Painting Smart The painting I’m bringing you today is called The Edge of Light. It’s a 4 painting I’m bringing you today is called The Edge of Light. It’s a 4 by 6, and I painted this last...
Revisiting a reference I painted years ago. Maybe some of you have noticed I’ve moved away from the M. It’s just time. Big changes afoot. Check out the new website at mfrancismcarthy.art, lots of videos there, really easy to scroll through. Why Paint...
I often joke on the channel that I’m a card-carrying member of Vignetteers Anonymous. I got a problem. I got a real bad problem. I love to vignette. I think it’s so powerful. And this talk probably won’t be that long because it’s...
Social media has been on my mind for a long time. I think it’s an incredibly destructive force in modern human culture. Let’s get into the reasons why, and some of the solutions. I’m not an expert on social media. I’m just a...
Join me as I create a tonalist riff inspired by Francis Murphy’s “Evening” In the Substack studio pass area, I put up a study from 2021, a painting called “Evening” by Francis Murphy. It got me thinking, I really like that old painting....
Welcome to another tonal landscape oil painting demonstration. This is your painter in residence, Michael Francis McCarthy. And the painting I’m bringing you today is called “Riff on Francis Murphy, Evening.” I painted this back in September of 2025 and I’ve been sitting...
Welcome to Easel Talk #36! Big shapes. This is going to be good, and it ties directly to our last talk on modulation. They go hand in hand, though big shapes are way more important. We’re talking composition today, while modulation handles value...