Posts

Background on Two New Paintings

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Summer Island, oil on canvas, 20 x 30 inches, 2023 My painting Summer Island  is at Somerville Manning Gallery in Greenville, DE. Funny story behind it. Originally I painted a nearby peninsula extending into the waters of a northern lake. The far shore was close by as well and was heavily forested.  I liked the result but as I studied the painting I found the most intrigue in the wonderfully irregular rhythms of the peninsula in the foreground. Wanting to give that the star billing I painted on it further and gradually pushed the background farther and farther into the distance. Eventually the distant forests dissolved into peaceful atmospheric blues. Finally the foreground trees seemed to ask to stand alone, so I cut the peninsula off from the shore. The remaining little island seemed happiest with it new untethered status.  Kitchen Table, Truro Studio, oil on panel, 18 x 24 inches, 2023 Kitchen Table, Truro Studio  is in the new exhibition The Mind's Eye: Turning Inward  at Cour
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Colors of June / Colors of September

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Philip Koch, Warm September, oil on panel, 14 x 21inches, 2020 Art expresses the emotions painters have about their subject. Sometimes though it's the opposite.  This is my painting Warm September  that is at Somerville Manning Gallery in Delaware.  I started the piece by painting with mostly verdant green colors over three hot June afternoons. To be honest it was sort of weather that starts you longing for a crisp Fall day.  Later back in my studio I gave in to that fantasy and changed the calendar on that painting to a more temperate Fall day. Liked the result a lot. This was the second painting I made from that spot. I'd found this subject when I came across a lovingly maintained split rail fence at the side of a field in East Aurora, NY. This  was an area the fanciful painter Charles Burchfield favored for his own landscapes (I was the Artist in Residence for   the Burchfield Penney Art Center in nearby Buffalo from 2015-18).  Here below is the first on site oil I made of
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My painting Canopy featured on Redfin's article about Rochester, NY

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/ Philip Koch Paintings was named a local expert of Rochester, NY, on Redfin. Check out the article we were featured in: 15 Beautiful Places in Rochester, NY | Redfin Redfin's article includes my painting Canopy, oil on canvas, 40 x 30 inches, 2023 (see below).  It was inspired by my memories of the old growth forest I grew up in along the shore of Lake Ontario. After I would get off the school bus I had a long walk home along a winding road through the woods. After school you could take your time.  I'd walk slowly, soaking in nature's indelible personality.  One thing about forests that have never been cut down- they're tall . Your eye follows the tree trunks as they s oared upward, ending in an interlaced network of branches. You're almost compelled to cast your gaze upward. I'm convinced the architects who designed the historic  European cathedrals had this in mind.  Here's the segment from Redfin- 4. Take in the scenery of Gosnell Big Woods Preserve “I
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Maier Museum of Art Acquires Work by Philip Koch

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Philip Koch, Edward Hopper's Studio, Truro,  vine charcoal, 7 x 14 inches, 2020, Maier Museum of Art at Randolph College, Lynchburg, VA I'm happy the Maier Museum of Art at Randolph College in Virginia has acquired my drawing above for their permanent collection. The drawing touches on my own history and the role seeing the work of the Edward Hopper played in my own career.  While m y own art is quite different than that of Edward Hopper I count his as my best teacher. A s a young painter  I began by making abstract canvases. But after it seeing his strong light and solid volumes it felt as if Hopper had tapped me on the shoulder saying "You know you really want to be a realist." My drawing was inspired both by my many residencies staying and working in Edward Hopper's studio on Cape Cod and by a particular Hopper painting in the Maier Museum's collection, Mrs. Scott's House . Initially I'd known of the Maier painting through reproductions. It fascin
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Edward Hopper Didn't Like to Teach But Still Offers Great Lessons

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Edward Hopper, Summertime , oil on canvas, 1943, Delaware Art Museum I was in Wilmington, DE today dropping off a new painting at Somerville Manning Gallery . Before heading home I stopped by the Delaware Art Museum . I always resolve not to focus on old favorites at the museum, but my feet had other ideas and planted me in front of Edward Hopper's Summertime .  Famously awkward around others, Hopper taught very little during his life and commented he didn't like doing it. But he painted on a level brimming with his distinctive creative way of seeing. His paintings teach our eyes. Some time ago in a blogpost I talked about how Hopper did great inventive things with shapes on this canvas.  I noted this today and was about leave when I saw something I hadn't noticed before in the woman's legs. The left one is way more cool in color than the right (in person this shows much better than in my lowly iPhone photograph). Hopper went to great lengths to make the changing colors
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My Gratitude to Some Artist I'll Never Know

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Philip Koch, Clearing, oil on canvas, 30 x 60 inches, 2022. I was looking at my painting above,  Clearing,  Even a complex painting has to begin simply. Remembering how it started in my studio with me experimenting with different compositions of its basic flat shapes. At this stage it feels like arranging cut out  colored paper   on a flat table top. You can express a lot even with that.  I fell into reverie about my early days when I was an abstract painter. When I studied painting at Oberlin College probably 90% of my canvases were simple colorful abstractions of flat shapes.  At the time I hadn't seen how deeply ingrained this habit had become in my practice. S omething changed when I got to Indiana University to start their MFA Painting program.  It's funny how sometimes we learn the most critical lessons from things that at first seem modest and unremarkable. I was visiting the studio of another artist in the program. In the corner was a small and not very striking landsca
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New Paintings at Somerville Manning Gallery

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  At Somerville Manning Gallery yesterday- Left: Evergreen, Middle: Winter, Right: Narrow Cove Ogunquit At Somerville Manning Gallery yesterday,  Warm September I took four new paintings up to Somerville Manning Gallery in Greenville, DE yesterday. Two had just returned from Ogunquit Museum of American Art's exhibition Philip Koch: Isle of Dreams in Maine, and the other two were large canvases fresh off my easel.   Evergreen,   oil on canvas, 36 x 54 inches, 2022 (above).  When I was out on location painting the study for this large oil I had the feeling this was a home happily contented people lived in. Perhaps that's silly as I didn't see anyone around over the three mornings I worked on the painting. But there was something wonderful about their yard- bright sun splashing on exuberantly colored shutters and roof. Setting this off were the solemn dark evergreens, impressive in their size and obvious maturity.       Just returned from the Ogunquit Museum exhibition is  Win
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