John K. Harrell uses thickly layered paint and fearless color to capture the excitement of fleeting moments and the vitality of urban landscapes.

by Austin R. Williams

Although he paints in a range of genres, including figures, florals, and abstracts, John K. Harrell’s focus for his entire career has been on urban landscapes. “When I first started painting professionally, a friend let me go through her vacation photos,” he recalls. “She had a rain scene of Paris, and the reflections and the architecture grabbed me. I’ve been doing pieces like that ever since. They’ve evolved — at first I didn’t like to paint cars or buses, and now I love painting them.”

Stormy Weather

A particular type of city scene attracts Harrell. His paintings offer views straight up busy avenues and crowded pedestrian plazas — compositions that place the viewer right in the middle of the action. This perspective gives a strong sense of a captured, fleeting moment. So, too, does the weather. In many of the artist’s paintings, such as Companions II and Destination, below, it’s raining, about to rain, or has just stopped raining. Between the weather and the composition, we’re engulfed by these views of the city. Our eyes dart to its bright signs and colored lights — as well as to oncoming buses and pedestrians. If we look too long, we might feel the need to move out of the way.

Camera, Light, Action

The artist works primarily in acrylic, painting from photographs, and he occasionally works en plein air in pastel. “Half the fun is getting out there with my camera and snapping as many digital photos as I can,” he says. “I’m pretty true to whatever I’m experiencing at that moment. When I go to paint from my photos, I try to recreate the feeling and essence of what caught my attention in the first place. I may change things here and there and leave out detail, but that actual moment is pretty important to me.”

It’s light that first captures Harrell’s interest in a scene. “The first thing that catches my eye is the light, whether it’s high-contrast or atmospheric,” he says. Harrell also enjoys when weather or unexpected circumstances enter a scene. Rain and haze add colorful reflections and strong atmosphere to a view, which the artist paints with gusto.

Harrell favors loose, broad strokes of paint, which he applies primarily with a palette knife. Some paintings, including Misty Way, below, are painted entirely without brushes. He uses thickly layered paint, resulting in heavily textured surfaces. This can cause his paintings to lean toward the abstract — and the artist plans to take his artwork further in this vein. “The looser, the better,” he says. “I want viewers to identify some sort of image from the painting and wonder how it happened — so loose that you don’t completely get it. I love that.”

Layered Paint, Bold Color

Harrell paints with Golden acrylics on canvas glued to hardboard. “I like a harder surface than stretched canvas, because I’m pretty heavy-handed with how I apply paint,” he explains. In addition to his palette knives, the artist uses Winsor & Newton filbert brushes. The artist begins with an underpainting of the opposite temperature from the eventual painting — that is, if the scene will be warm, he uses a cool color for the underpainting, and vice versa. He then sketches the major elements of the piece to set up the dominant shapes and establish perspective.

Next, Harrell lays in color — lots of color. “I don’t get too specific, but I block in the large shapes with big strokes of color,” he says. “I try to leave a lot of texture. When you have an underpainting and start with big strokes, things will happen that you like and that you don’t. If I like them, I call them happy accidents and leave them there.” The artist’s feel for the scene determines whether he uses brushes or palette knives. “For a very soft-focused painting, I’ll use my brush,” he says. “If there’s a lot of energy in the scene, I like to use my knife and let the paint create the intensity.”

Harrell has reassuring words for artists whose paintings aren’t working out. If it doesn’t look right, he says, just think of what you’ve already painted as an underpainting. “It takes away the stigma that a painting has to be perfect every step of the way,” he says. Harrell teaches his students that they can correct any mistakes, and he reminds them that it’s okay for paintings not to look beautiful in the interim stages. “The biggest part of my workshops is getting people over the fear of using acrylic,” he says. “Once they see that they can have fun, they like it.”

Demo: Painting City Glow

In this demo, Harrell describes his inspiration and technique for his energetic, near-abstract painting City Glow (acrylic, 24×30). His characteristic thickly layered paint and dramatic color capture the speed and intensity of a New York City moment.

STEP 1

I worked from a photograph of New York City. I fell in love with this image; it had everything I like — lighting, atmosphere. The image represents why I paint urban scenes. I used Golden Artist acrylics on acrylic-primed cotton duck canvas. A palette knife was my primary tool for applying paint. I began by toning the canvas with an underpainting of Indian yellow hue, then drew horizontal and vertical centerlines on both the canvas and the reference photograph as a guide for the sketch. Next, I drew the basic elements of the piece, with the intention to establish the painting’s perspective and large shapes.

STEP 2

I worked from the background to the foreground and from the top to the bottom. I began putting down an initial layer of color. My goal was to get close to the final color and value of each area, but neither color nor value had to be exact at this point. I used lots of paint, which added texture to the canvas.

STEP 3

At this stage, the entire canvas was covered in color, except for small spots where the underpainting showed through. I was trying to stay loose and lay in thick color that would dry so I could add another layer over it. I gave myself value landmarks such as the white of the sign and the dark of the car.

STEP 4

I focused on designing shapes, honing values, and defining the focal area. I also began to place more intense color. At this point I had a clear map for what I had to do to finish the piece. It was all about intense color, strong values, and sharpening or softening lines where needed.

STEP 5

For me, the end is the best part. I just sit back and put a little more color here, brighten the painting there, or subdue it over here. It’s taking the best elements of the painting and punching them up a bit. I just rely on my intuition to take me to the final piece. I just know that the painting is done. Varnishing City Glow after completing it intensified the color further.

A version of this story appeared in Acrylic Artist magazine.