Mønsted's Painterly Suggestion of Foliage
jamesgurney.substack.com
Mønsted's Painterly Suggestion of Foliage
If all you saw was this reproduction by Danish painter Peder Mørk Mønsted (1859-1941), you might think it was finished to some fussy level of photographic detail.
But a super close-up shows a joyous riot of thick paint handling.
Realism can be achieved by suggestion, and one of the joys of painting is the balance between the material properties of paint and the illusion of light, air, and depth.
-----
Peder Mørk Mønsted on Wikipedia
Hey, On the first photo, what was the viewer's distance from the work? It's like Chuck Close's work: twenty feet away you think you're looking at a photograph; but as you walk closer, you realize it's a painting.
I think this is why I love reading your posts and watching your videos: the joy that comes from your understanding of realism balanced with expressiveness. Showing us how to see the joy in this brushwork that makes us able to envision a realistic scene - it makes me think about how the brain is such an amazing evolutionary twist.