Maxfield Parrish's artistic techniques

Maxfield Parrish (1870-1966) was an painter and illustrator active in the first half of the 20th century.

Parrish's art is characterized by vibrant colors; the color Parrish blue was named after him.

He achieved such luminous color through glazing.

This process involves applying layers of translucent paint and oil medium (glazes) over a base rendering.

Parrish usually used a blue and white monochromatic underpainting.

His paintings/illustrations were unique in that they depicted a highly idealized fantasy world that was accessible to the general public.

Although you will rarely see a glimpse of that color in reality, he was and still is linked with a particularly bright shade of blue that coated the skies of his landscapes.

And it was not an easy task for him to complete.

He invented a time-consuming process that involved a cobalt blue base and white undercoating, which he then coated with a series of thin alternating coatings of oil and varnish.

When exposed to ultraviolet light, the resins he employed, known as Damar, fluoresce a shade of yellow-green, giving the painted sky its distinctive turquoise tint.

Parrish used many other innovative techniques in his paintings.

He would take pictures of models in black and white geometric prints and project the image onto his works.

This technique allowed for his figures to be clothed in geometric patterns, while accurately representing distortion and draping.

Parrish would also create his paintings by taking pictures, enlarging, or projecting objects.

He would cut these images out and put them onto his canvas.

He would later cover them with clear glaze.

Parrish's technique gave his paintings a more three-dimensional feel.

The outer proportions and internal divisions of Parrish's compositions were carefully calculated in accordance with geometric principles such as root rectangles and the golden ratio.

In this Parrish was influenced by Jay Hambidge's theory of Dynamic Symmetry.