Seascapes

Although my studio is in the upper Midwest, the sea has been an artistic challenge to me, probably because of its mystery and unceasing motion, its wide moods and wider range of color. Unlike fortunate painters who've had the chance to study the sea, my horizon has been more limited. Still, marine painting attracts me, and it's pleasant to look at something beside snow this time of year.

Over the centuries, marine painting, or seascapes, have always been popular and remain so today. As is often the case when you go searching online, unknown facts and people pop up. As I was thinking about this blog post and searching, Ivan Aivazovsky (1817-1900) popped up. A Russian-Armenian painter, he was born Hovhannes Aivazian in Crimea and received a formal art education in St. Petersburg. In his day Mr. Aivazovsky was prolific, well-known and exhibited widely. By the time of his death he had produced thousands of works from portraits to landscape to many marine works. His work is highly romantic and more brightly colored than the realism of his day, and it eventually became unfashionable. Nevertheless his best works are still vigorous and engaging. 

Ivan Aivazovsky, "Rainbow," 1873

In "Rainbow," he shows us a ship foundered onshore during a violent storm. The crew has abandoned ship and is struggling to safety amid wind-whipped waves. The sun has broken through, making the sky into a rainbow (you can see it faintly at extreme left). The idea, composition, colors and narrative make this an admirable and utterly compelling work.

An American master of seascapes is Winslow Homer, a favorite of many and a particular favorite of my own. Mr. Homer was largely self-taught, although he did work for a lithographer for a short time in his youth. From that small start he made a career as an illustrator, then as a painter. His illustrations include beautifully executed pen and ink drawings during the Civil War.

Winslow Homer, "The Gulf Stream," 1899

It is interesting to compare Homer's masterpiece with "Rainbow." Each shows a vessel after a storm, the crew helpless before the heaving sea. Mr. Homer's paint handling is dense and thick, the ocean and waves mostly dark and forbidding. But unlike the escaping boats in Mr. Aivazovsky's work, this solitary fisherman seems trapped by a trough of deep and dangerous ocean, unseen by a very distant sail. Each painter, though, renders the water with consummate skill.

Hoff, "Passing the Light," oil on panel

My forays into marine painting have been few though the future probably holds more plein air work near the sea. Water is a formidable challenge. Above is one of my few seascapes, showing a sailboat on its way out of port. I did this one on a medium-grey support and played two differing blues against one another. The setting could be any place, but is actually an inland sea, Lake Michigan beyond the Chicago River. 

Hoff, "Wave study," oil on panel 2020

The last of these is a wave study done in oil on panel during early winter. This is a study of waves, done after a teaching study by another artist. There is a warm-toned failure of a painting under the study, some of which you can see here and there as dark passages. The palette here was an unusual one for me, including manganese blue, a color I had never tried. It was a challenge to model the wave and foam shapes and imply underlying earth and rock. 

Water in general and the ocean in particular are fascinating subjects. More to come.