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I choose two Paul Cezanne’s paintings to help me in the composition of the drawing, in the color picking and in the brush marking. These are, first, a panoramic view from the Ste-Victoire mountain and, second, the ‘Black Castle’ or Château Noir.

Here is, step by step, the project realization.
I drew the subject with a charcoal piece, in a simple and quick manner, avoiding details at this step. I retraced the outline with a small round brush dampened in French Ultramarine diluted with the 50-50 oil thinner mix.

I put the first stains of Cobalt Blue and Titanium White in the sky with my bristle brush.
I then put the same color stains on the wall to make the surrounding houses’ shadows.

We must work in a relax and spontaneous manner with firm brush strokes. Now, this is the Cezanne secret, in most part : the brush strokes would be like a diagonal zig zag of 3 to 4 brush strokes. It is a good idea to practise this in the sky with no risk to affect the main subject. For the surrounding houses, the marking would be made by vertical or horizontal brush strokes. We do not work with details that much at this step. The most important thing is to keep a regular marking on the whole canvas area.

I work everywhere at the same time, on the canvas. The sky is now made of a few strokes only, the roofs are painted with Red Ochre and Burnt Sienna. I placed some Emerald Green and Terra Verde on the background hills. I put, as well, some French Ultramarine strokes, on the door as well as under the right hand side of the roof. The walls under the sun are painted with Yellow Dark Cadmium, Red Ochre, Lemon Yellow and Titanium White. These colors are put and adjusted by blending them directly on the canvas one stain after the other. This painting trademark, part of the Cezanne secret, allows us to create tinting and interest in secondary, but equally important, subjects.

I keep on filling the sky with Cobalt Blue and Titanium White, this being done, I add French Ultramarine and some dark Alizarin Crimson to build a mauvish effect. I put some French Ultramarine to emphasize the foreground trees’ shadows and their foliages. Note that the houses would be perceived further away if the background is dark blue.

I fill the sky following the same Cezanne manner. I add the same pale tinted colors originating from the sky to the open light parts on the hills and I put the same color stains in the foreground to raise an artistic harmony.
When you work on the entire area at the same time, it gives you great freedom in your expression and gestures that show on the picture.

I strenghten the background hill with a dark blue shade around it. I add some brush strokes of Viridian on the hill, a recall of the foliages. I keep on filling the foreground with the same colors on your palette, used for the picture with stains here and there.  I keep the same painting zig zag marking, typical of Cezanne.

I place the dark shades on the hills and Prussian Blue and French Ultramarine in the foreground.

I finish by placing the open light in the foliages with Lemon Yellow and Cadmium Yellow. I appose the last details on the right hand side doors and windows. I adjust the tints, hues and shades with soft brush strokes on the whole picture.

The particular work done by Cezanne, his secret, was to weigh equally every picture elements. The sky and hills weigh the same as the right hand side house and the road. Each element has its place and purpose in the picture.
You can see when you compare the picture to the photograph, that the artist work is more to interpret rather than to represent the subject as it is.
I hope that this exercise will allow you to find a kind of freedom in your painting and will help you take daring decisions rather than simply go on with your usual habits.  The risk would be to paint more like Cezanne…not that bad?!

Rene Milone

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