Inner Clearing / Inner Storms

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Philip Koch, Penobscot Bay #1, pastel, 7 x 14 inches, 1999


Just before I went to bed last night I was looking at the above pastel for the first time in a long while. My first thought was that the drawing wasn't sure if it was about brightening sun or darkening storms. Then I decided that was its point.

 Way back in 1999 my feelings had been hurt when a relative had forgotten to invite me to an important family wedding. Not wanting to sit home moping I booked a last minute flight to Maine to paint for a week in the coastline of Penobscot Bay.  

 The area lived up its reputation for striking natural beauty. But Maine can be notorious for rain and gloom and the art gods had decided that was being to be the menu for that week. Every day it poured. 

 Of course I was disappointed but I'd come prepared and was able to turn the front seat of my rental car into a makeshift studio, making a series of finished charcoal drawings of the landscape.  Later on these became pastels or oil paintings that I'm really proud of.

Philip Koch, Night in the Mountains, pastel, 9 x 12 inches, 1999


We'd all prefer to live clear light-filled days but that's not the terrain any of us can occupy full time. And who knows, maybe not being able to see to clearly through the heavy rains that week allowed me to turn an eye inward and summon up some energy from a resilient side of myself.



Philip Koch, From Day to Night, oil on panel, 6 1/2 x 13 inches, 
2019


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