My Burchfield Residency- What I Learned

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Charles Burchfield, Easter Morning in the Woods 
(left side), watercolor, 39 1/2 x 29 1/2 inches, 1947-60
Burchfield Penney Art Center, Buffalo, NY


Charles Burchfield, Easter Morning in the Woods 
(right side), watercolor, 39 1/2 x 29 3/8 inches, 1947-60
Burchfield Penney Art Center

My paintings have all returned from the wonderful exhibition at the Burchfield Penney Art Center in Buffalo, NY. The show at the museum was of work I'd done from 2015-18 as the Burchfield Penney's Artist in Residence. 

I used to worry about the way I liked to return to earlier paintings and make improvements. I've loved to pull out work from earlier years. If I see a way to strengthen the painting I'll jump right in. Even though this was successful about 95% of the time I didn't know any other artist who did this anywhere near as much.  As I studied Burchfield's work I felt so reassured to find he did the same.

Burchfield's two panels above are uncompleted works-in-progress. Stymied by a stubborn composition, he split one of his paintings in two, attaching additional paper to both pieces to expand each of them. New sketch lines show us where he intended to go with them.

Burchfield left a lot of unfinished work behind him. More than any other artist I know, he had an optimism that he could learn how to do things better. When he couldn't resolve one of his paintings he held onto it. He would wait, often for years, in hopes a better solution would occur to him. Some paintings literally were worked on in dozens of attempts stretched over years. Often he brilliantly strengthened and resolved his early attempts. 

It is all too easy to see an exasperating impasse with a painting and trash it. Burchfield's successful example of holding onto many works-in-progress teaches us-  given time, if we're open to it, other ways to look at a problem in a painting will come to us. Persistently in returning work on earlier unresolved pieces, he tapped into a power that unlocked doors. 

There's a telling metaphor in his method. He shows us revisiting old troubled paintings can lead to new victories in the studio. Talking with my wife Alice the therapist I realize there's a real parallel here with psychotherapy. Re-examining our old habits of how we feel about the past or about ourselves can do the same.


Upcoming Gallery Talks:

MICA Sabbatical Exhibition- 
Tues. Sept. 11

In Baltimore I will give a talk on my three large oil paintings in the exhibition in MICA's Decker Gallery in the school's Fox Building at 2:30 p.m.


Philip Koch, Mansard Roof, oil on canvas, 36 x 72 inches, 2018


Artists on Art: Burchfield and 
Hopper from a Painters' Perspective
Sun. Sept. 23


Edward Hopper, Summertime,
oil on canvas, Delaware Art Museum

On Sunday, September 23 at 2:00 I'll be giving a talk at Delaware Art Museum in Wilmington, DE comparing that Museum's work by Hopper with some their pieces by Charles Burchfield. 

The event is free with museum admission.





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