Evenings Embrace 8x10

Welcome to another exploration of tonal landscape painting. Today I’m sharing “Evening’s Embrace,” an 8x10 painting I completed just yesterday that I absolutely couldn’t wait to show you. I’m genuinely stoked with how this one turned out—it’s a beautiful example of modern Tonalism that demonstrates several key principles that I want to discuss.

Evening’s Embrace 8x10

Technical Note: You’ll notice some unusual visual effects in the early part of today’s video. I’ve been experimenting with ways to eliminate that harsh lighting line that sometimes appears at the top of paintings during filming. While we get some dark haze effect from my solution, you’re actually seeing much truer, more accurate colors this way—definitely an improvement overall.

This painting is on hardboard with several coats of house paint tinted to “Deep Earth”—a preparation that worked beautifully for this piece. What I did differently here was introduce Mars black into the mix during the drawing/underpainting stage, earlier than I typically would. My reasoning was simple: I wanted fairly dark shapes against that bright sky, so why not start establishing those darker values from the beginning This approach was actually inspired by YouTube’s algorithm suggesting one of my own videos from three years ago! There I was, doing my underpainting with black directly on the hardboard, and I remembered how much I used to love working that way. Instead of my usual straight underpainting, this one went quite dark right from the start thanks to that extra Mars black.

The Mars Black Discovery

Speaking of Mars black, I’ve been working with Gamblin Mars black until recently when I used up my entire tube. I had purchased what I think was Maimeri Classico (not sure of the exact pronunciation), but their Mars black was terrible—I simply couldn’t use it effectively. I ended up ordering Winsor & Newton Mars black, which works beautifully, and got myself a backup tube as well. You might wonder, “Black is black—what’s the difference?” Actually, there’s a huge difference. Ivory black is beautiful and more transparent, but sometimes that transparency works against me when I need solid coverage in dark areas. Mars black delivers that coverage. However, I still use both because ivory black tends to be much more attractive in mixtures, and of course, it’s fundamental to “Mike’s Gray,” which you see in this sky. In the finished painting, you’d swear that sky is blue, but it’s actually Mike’s Gray.

Members Area Updates

Before we dive deeper into the painting, a quick update for members: the Substack members area now provides the complete package—transcript, video, reference image, and palette setup. While you don’t get 4K resolution there, you get everything else in one organized post. YouTube Members don’t worry—there’s a corresponding blog post with all the same elements. I’m doing the double work to make sure everyone gets value.

About the Book

Good news about “Landscape Painting the Tonalist Way”—shipping costs haven’t increased as expected, so it remains $60 with international shipping included. It’s only available as a physical book, and I’ve had nothing but positive feedback. If you’re interested in my comprehensive approach to tonalist painting, everything is in there.

The Heart of the Painting: Orange Against Gray

What makes this painting so engaging—and why I was excited to share it—is that lovely contrast between the orange and the gray that reads as blue. These natural color relationships do occur in nature, though not constantly. Beautiful sunsets reveal these combinations. The reference image for this piece, which you’ll see in the blog post and members area, tells an important story. It’s quite artistic in its own right because it’s the result of extensive digital manipulation—probably a good hour of work using various techniques. I’ll throw everything including the kitchen sink at a reference if I can make it more stimulating, beautiful, and inspiring. The reference doesn’t need to function as art itself. For me, it’s simply part of the process leading to the painting. The final artwork goes through me—my mind, hand, and brush. It doesn’t really matter what sort of reference inspires that process.

Breaking Compositional Rules Thoughtfully

I broke a significant rule with this painting by placing the main focal tree mass dead center. You’re typically not supposed to do that, but my strategy was deliberate: first, that central mass links directly to the larger tree mass on the right, so when you consider the whole grouping, there’s substantial balance. I also added balance through the path placement, the overall tree weight, and the amount of light underneath. The coup de grâce is that beautiful little distant lake, which wasn’t in my original reference setup. It’s quite easy to add elements like this in Photoshop now. Honestly, the lake I installed didn’t look great, but that doesn’t matter—it’s just grist for the mill, there to inspire the painting process.

Expressive Work vs. Detailed Illustration

This painting represents a deliberate choice. I’ve been working on a series of very clearly painted scenes from New Zealand’s Northland coast—Poor Knights Island, Hole in the Rock, and currently a rendition of Whangarei Heads. While I enjoy those paintings, they remind me of clicking into illustration mode, which isn’t my favorite way to work. I prefer painting my emotional response to scenes rather than getting hung up on working things out. When I had the underpainting done for one of those more detailed pieces, I decided instead to create something tonal for the channel—and this is the result. I’m absolutely pleased with it.

Modern Tonalism Characteristics

Look at how I’ve handled those background hills and tree shapes—everything’s been stylized and is quite graphic. I was content to leave considerable abstraction in the scene, which is definitely a hallmark of many great tonalist paintings. Not all Tonalism needs to be abstract, and you can certainly work more realistically, but get too realistic and you tip over into Hudson River School territory. Even when I work in a more Hudson River-influenced approach, I don’t detail the entire painting from foreground to background—that’s not my thing. I prefer scenes like this that are largely imaginary, even though they’re based on references. This painting has all the tonalist hallmarks: large linked masses, minimal actual detail, rich color modulations, and deep shadows. While I haven’t seen many traditional tonal landscapes that came off quite like this, most people familiar with art history would recognize it as Tonalism—it’s simply a modern interpretation that’s more graphic and cleaner.

The Value of Restraint

Part of my brief for this painting was keeping the brushwork expressive. Once I had the painting covered, I wanted to leave it alone. There were little bits I could have tweaked and adjusted, but I often decide against that in favor of preserving what I constantly discuss on the channel: an honest, expressive interpretation of the reference that isn’t overworked is always more valuable than an amateurish pursuit of perfection. There are painters like Shishkin, the Russian master—incredible detail, amazing tonal quality, everything perfect. But that doesn’t interest me. What I do well is expressive brushwork that represents my interpretation, my impression of the scene. Every painting is an impression, even though the Impressionists were to ones lucky enough to claim that beautiful name for their movement.

Working Philosophy

This is one reason I work on colored grounds—I can leave areas of the board exposed if I want. I love to put down a stroke, leave it alone, move on, finish the painting, and then leave it alone. That’s exactly what I did here, and I’m thrilled to share it with you. I hope you got something from watching me put this together. Leave me a comment if you did—I really appreciate that, along with the likes and all your support. Check out the members area, join the mailing list for Substack updates, and look for that corresponding blog post.

Until I come back with another video & blogpost, take care of yourself, your family, and all your loved ones—and stay out of trouble!

Cheers, Mike