This is Fort Morgan, site of the Battle of Mobile Bay. I had about 2.5 hours before the fort closed. I set up on a walkway overlooking the port facing northeast with my back to the passage into the bay where the ironclads and warships slugged it out. It would have been ideal to have laid down with a ruler the lines of perspective but I didn't have the time or the tools so I had to make do. I didn't have a knife to cut open the water bottle so I had to put the brushes into the mouth to clean them and this slowed me down. An annoyance but also a subconscious strategy to put the brakes on the hastiest impulses. I laid out wobbly basic lines and kept the initial layers thin.
Working thin and keeping the colors light early on produces really nice effects that often get lost as the scene is reworked to correct mistakes. I need to draw the scene out completely before putting the colors down, just to see if I can preserve the freshness and transparency of the early layers of paint. I tried this in another scene that I will get on this blog as soon as I can finish it.
I like the fort scenes for the views of the water, the geometry of the structures and the interesting brick colors. Fort Morgan was a reddish brick with a slightly orange row in places. The red brick turned rose colored in the area nearest me but the interior was blackened in several places. I worked to capture these aspects early on.
I worked a little more on this scene before leaving for an 11 day business trip to Washington and NYC. Back at home I began to fill in the colors and shape things more carefully using reference photos. But it's always evident when a painting has been finished on site vs. in the studio. A certain life essence is sacrificed as things get more precise and refined. On the left and along the battlements, it still was pretty fresh at this stage. Anyway, here is where it stood when I left town.
By the time I got back, I had seen several exhibits including the Michelangelo drawings at the Met, and the Protest art at the Whitney, among others. I also spent time at the Phillips looking at an exhibit of works connected to Renoir's Luncheon of the Boating Party, to try to overcome my dislike of his work. I'm glad I did this. I learned some things from this deep dive into a group scene that may help me improve my efforts to do crowd paintings. I also found some things about him to admire.
What I saw when I got back to my painting was a strong need to establish clear lines of perspective and to have a clear line of separation between the fort and the background. I also realized that upper deck of the fort needed to be more clearly painted and the arches and far right staircase needed to be redrawn. I also had to alter the walkway inside the fort. I did some sketches and looked at a few tips and then got to work. In this case the best results came from using masking tape to get the horizon line very clean, and to provide a guideline for other places where I would have to paint them in more finely. I also had to start over on the background and so I whited out the area between the fort and the water. I liked the brown umber over the arches but I couldn't keep that alive over the remainder of the painting.
I took a few liberties. I put in a beach, eliminated the buildings and the ferry jetty. I slid in some lemony colors along the beach and back to the treeline. I tried a variety of red+black+orange combinations on the main interior wall. I liked the colors but they weren't drawn in so I had to go back later and change them. I still at this point had an open upper story, leaving out the guard rails for as long as possible. I never could get something that I liked for the yard inside the fort. I probably should have stuck with something more transparent.
I reworked the interior wall and its arches to give it a heavier presence using more blackened colors. I tried to get at that weathered and battle worn look. I did a lot of little adjustments on the battlements and the trees in the distance. After I got a good but kind of busy effect on the interior wall, I decided to simplify the yard. Finally with a small brush I put in the guard rails. And that's how I got to this.
