Frederick Judd Waugh
Severe-looking Victorian gentleman? Possibly. Masterful marine artist? Definitely. I have a look at the amazing seascape painter Frederick Judd Waugh.
As a practicing artist, it’s important to take an interest in the work of other artists, past and present, to see how they may inspire and inform your own work, and to elevate one’s soul. An artist I’m quite fond of is the amazing seascape painter, Frederick J. Waugh. Working from the latter part of the Nineteenth Century up until his death in 1940, Waugh’s extensive body of work exhibits a bold use of colour, contrast, texture, and volume.
Please take a look at Waugh’s seascape above. You can almost hear the roar of that roller as it crashes towards the sheet of rock, the fizz of the foam, the scent of the sea air as it tears at the surf. There’s a lot going on with this visceral painting, the shapes that Waugh has created to give volume to surface of the sea, pyramids and cones for the most part, especially from the breaking wave forward. These volumes and the way Waugh uses colour and tone, create mass. Additionally, I really like the way the surface of the rock reflects the light from the sky and the wave, this prevents the intrusion of a slab of dull granite from killing the painting, the way the rock interacts with the sea and sky elevates all three. Notice also how yellow is used predominantly in the foreground, and more sparingly in the mane of the breaking wave. This use of yellow pulls the foreground forward and helps to construct depth.
Having marvelled at Waugh’s skill, let’s have a bit of a deeper look at another painting of his, Rocky Point
Rocky Point is very Waugh. He doesn’t waste time trying to depict every bubble of foam, or every drop of spray, instead, he evokes the tumult of waves breaking over rocks with broad strokes that give form and direction, and the warm colours of the rocks contrast starkly with the cool colour of the sea.
I try to emulate Waugh
Enjoying his approach to seascape painting, and seeking to inform my own work via Waugh’s, I decided to try and emulate his style. I’m not seeking to copy his paintings, what would be the point in that, though what I’m really trying to do is figure out how he painted his paintings so I can learn from him. Regrettably, F. Judd Waugh is no longer with us, if he were I dare say he would have his own very successful Youtube channel and be accepting questions via Twitter, thus, in the absence of the man, I need to start a conversation with his work, to get under the hood and see how his paintings operate.
I’m going to start out with a small 10″ x 8 oil sketch of Rocky Point. Waugh’s original is 25″ x 30″. I’m not looking to produce a replica, I’m not even looking to get into the same groove as Waugh. I just want to paint something that’s similar enough that I can compare and contrast it to Waugh’s work. I’ll be using my regular pallet of colours and we shall see where I get with it
I’ve sketched up Waugh’s Rocky Point, and the result is a pleasing enough little painting. Now we’re going to compare my sketch to Waugh’s painting. It’s always a lot easier to compare and contrast something that looks quite like something else, right? Compare and contrast an email and a banana, crikey, where do you begin? But a banana and a carrot? Well, I hope you get what I mean.
Straight off of the bat, it’s clear that Waugh is using a great deal more contrast than I am. His darkest tones are way darker than mine and the lighter areas of the painting, the foam and spray around the rocks, are also quite a bit lighter and bulkier. Waugh’s also using colour for contrast. In Waugh’s Rocky Point the darkest areas of the foreground of the rocks are actually a dark blue, something like a very dark Ultramarine Blue which has quite a lot of warmth within it. The darkest areas of the middle ground are almost black, and is quite a bit warmer than the darkness in the foreground.
A brief aside for a moment to consider black, should you use it? I don’t think I have a tube of black, maybe one floating around under something from years ago. I use complementary colours to create blacks. That isn’t to say you should not use a range of blacks in your work.
Rule of thumb in colour theory is that cooler colours recede and warmer colours advance but Waugh is able to maintain the illusion of depth because the intensity of the foreground dark blue is so much greater than the duller, more neutral mid-ground dark tones even though those mid-ground dark tones are warmer in colour than the foreground dark tones. This makes a good point, the intensity of the colour, as well as its hue, shade, or tint, determines how it interacts with the colours around it, and how those interactions contribute to the illusion of depth in a painting.
We can also see that Frederick Judd Waugh uses areas of different colours, like the turquoise in the foreground, to define forms within the foam and surf. The crispness of the edges is also a salient feature of Waugh’s style, these edges not only give form to the painting but contribute to the illusion of detail.
Now that I’ve thought about how my sketch differs from Waugh’s Rocky Point, I’ve made some changes. I have increased the contrast, pushing the range in the painting, made the spray behind the rocks brighter and crisper. I’ve painted in areas of turquoise in the foreground and the sea immediately behind the rocks. This makes the foreground more dynamic and gives form to the foam. My original sketch lacked dynamic range, in terms of the intensity and tone of colour. The finished sketch is not only a more interesting painting in the vein of Waugh’s work, I now have a pretty good idea why it’s more interesting, and understanding why anything is the way it is is at the heart of being able to develop as an artist, and as a person.
I hope you’ve enjoyed this brief essay and introduction to the amazing seascape painter Frederick Judd Waugh, and I hope that, if you find yourself enjoying one of his works, you’ll spend an extra moment in his company. He’s well worth a few moments of your time.
Hi and thank you for this. I’m an amateur painter who recently discovered FJ Waugh. I’ve stared and stared at his work, but have had a difficult time dissecting it. You’ve been extremely helpful. I couldn’t figure how to tackle the billowy masses of foam. Despite endless searches, there are no tutorials on that kind of sea foam in particular. I was also struggling with what colours and techniques he used to make the rocks attractive. Anyway, this is brilliant. Thank you.