Many Mouths to Feed,
Trumpeter Swan
2017
Acrylic on Panel
13.75 x 22
ART OF GEORGE WILLIAM VAN HUMBECK
Oil and Acrylic Painting featuring Landscapes, Nature, and Wildlife
This site introduces to the world the art of George Van Humbeck, artist, painter, naturalist, and teacher. Besides visual links to his art this site also gives details about the process of creating fine works of art for the artist community, beginner or advanced, acrylic or oil painting.
Syenite Ontario
2020
Oil on Canvas
42 x 28
Private Collection of Russell and Joanne Van Humbeck
All ideas need to be reworked and refined. Being flexible is a necessary trait in order to refine one's work. I firmly believe that your successful painting needs to start as a successful drawing. Arguably, I would say that you paint well because you draw well. I know that such a statement is probably going to fill my Inbox, but that's okay, I love sharing ideas and debates with fellow artists. No matter what your opinion is on this matter, there is one fact I hope we can agree on: Know your subject. If for no other reason draw your composition on paper before you start to paint to help you to know your subject. And yes, draw big. Your canvas and brush will ask of you to be explicit.
This composition started as an idea more than a year before completion and a good four to five months before I started to scratch ideas on paper. It is an amazing process to see one's ideas evolve. It surprises me how this composition changed so much from the original concepts and the original reference photos I had taken. The rapids themselves started with a dozen photographs not including others to supplement the composition after the plan was developed. With the ideas nearing completion, I did one final sketch. Did you notice that the dead tree disappeared. I felt the composition was busy enough.
I then painted a small preliminary sketch to get a handle on the colour pallet I would be working with.
It was then that the final size of 42 x 28 was decided. I almost always stretch my own canvas, with three coats of gesso. The image was laid out with an acrylic phthalo blue wash which was then coated with an oil burnt sienna wash. I think next time I'll use the initial laying out in an acrylic burnt sienna instead of the blue.
It took the neighbor geologist to track down the name of the rock that is such a dominant feature of this painting and from which it gets it title, Syenite. "Its ferromagnesian minerals give it the pink variations."
This painting marked the last painting my dear wife, Annemiek, saw completed before her passing in August of 2020. Words cannot express the complexity of sadness and emotions that have washed over me and my family as we grow through this traumatic loss remembering her love, laughter, and guidance. My art continues to be part of my therapeutic rehab. I would like to thank everyone for the support they have given me and my family.
This is a previous stage in this painting evolution. Even after so much time went into the composition I still felt something was wrong. In my opinion there was a conflict in the center of interest but you can decide for yourself.