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| Charles Augustus C. Lasar Trees by the River 10.75 X 14.25 in. oil on canvas |
Previously, I have published three posts on Charles Augustus "Shorty" Lasar (1, 2, & 3), an American expatriate who studied with Gerôme, and who remained in Paris afterwards to run his own atelier where he catered to English-speaking, female students (Cecilia Beaux among them). Here are a few more thoughts from Lasar – this time on the topic of color in landscape painting – as taken from his 1910 book Practical Hints for Art Students.
Local color means the pigment color of a characteristic of the scene before it is refined by the color ofd the air, or tone of light.
The tone is a fact, the half tone only a suspicion.
Small light spots are the accents to evening, and dark spots the accents to daylight effects.
See that the general local color expresses an emotion.
Find your big mass of color and hang the remainder around it.
The fewer big masses of color in a picture the better.
It is dangerous to have a strong color cut by the frame.
You see width by color and distance by values.
Put the color of light on top of locals. Your scene must be seen through light, never meaning white paint, but the atmosphere colored by the sun's rays.
An effective scheme is to have lights on lights, darks on darks, cold colors on cold, and warm on warm, except where the principal interest is placed: there the extremes of light and dark, warm and cold, may come into opposition.
A picture may always be divided into three colors, the ground yellow, the sky blue, and red for the rest of the scene – this admits of infinite combinations and proportions.
If every object except the interest is forced to lose a small part of its local color, this being replaced by the color of the air, it will help to hold the scene together.
The greatest variety of color is in the first plane. As objects go back in planes they have less local color, and resolve more into the effect of atmosphere.
To get variety in touch let the pressure of your brush be smooth in some places, irregular in others.
The effect of light must carry twice as far as local color.
When local colors recede from the foreground they usually lose their yellow, and take more of a blue feeling; but when light goes back it takes on red producing a purple distance.
On the horizon the local color is almost lost on account of the volume of air in front of it.
All things as they go away from the eye get bluish, but all things seen through light become a warm gray.
Laying a white and a black card in front of you will help to gauge the values, and different colored papers will do the same for color, enabling contrast comparison. Paint one minute, compare two.
Compare! This is the most valuable advice anyone can give.
If the sun is high in the sky bring out local colors, but if the sun is low emphasize the effect of light. Objects will also show more detail when the sun is high.
The higher the clouds the clearer will be their edges.
A blue sky over a plowed field appears higher than over a green one, because of the greater contrast in color.
Don't ever use the same colors in the sky and ground.
Wherever the harmony is broken there we will find the great interest.
Bring out one principal color with a contrasting accent.
The presentation of sunlight without shadow is impossible.
Sunlight effects are made principally by shadows, and cast ones are very important.
Out of doors, light wraps around things, while indoors, shadows envelop objects.
On a sunny day everything is flat and sharp, on a foggy day things are fuzzy.
Sunlight takes out color, while a gray days adds to it by its warm rays and makes a scene more harmonious.
A gray day generally brings out local color because the light is not so strong as on a sunny day.
Gray days have no cast shadows, the light being more diffused.
If the motive is gray have colored accents.
Lose as much as possible that which is not interesting in a scene.
Keep local color simple and it will carry.
Warm light and yellow paint are not the same thing.
If you are looking toward the sun do not have warm-colored objects back in the picture.
If the interest color is pale all others should be strong.
Snow effects seldom look very snowy without a red spot of some kind.
All gradations gain in color of air as they recede from the origin of light, while local colors lose their quality of pigment as they get farther away.
When shadows are delicate, locals are strong; when shadows are strong, locals will be delicate or weak. Study the relation of things, then you will not exaggerate conditions.
Teach yourself to take the scene all in at one glance, and retain this effect. Every picture should represent one moment petrified upon the artist's imagination.
By half closing the eyes the big planes and masses become more visible. Opening the eyes as wide as possible one sees what makes a scene sparkle.
Get values by half-closed eyes, color by wide-open eyes.
If a country is not picturesque find the charm in the effect of light. Any place, or anything is paintable, if you have a willing mind to find nature alluring.
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| Pastoral Landscape with Canal and Distant Haystacks 11 X 15 in. oil on canvas |
Charles Lasar, Practical Hints for Art Students, (Duffield & Company, New York, 1923), pp. 138-183.