Warmth of Art in a Cold Troubling Time

-

Philip Koch, Edward Hopper's Parlor, Nyack,
oil on canvas, 32 x 24 inches, 2020 (at
Somerville Manning Gallery, Greenville, DE)

You know things are bad right now. 

Something I've learned from decades of making art is as I develop my painting somewhere I'm going to hit a roadblock.  
It's not fun to have to let go of your plans. But I try out some alternative solutions. Pretty soon something works.

In our personal lives having difficulty hit you over the head can hurt. If you don't let that pain blind you often that sharp collision scatters a few sparks of opportunity.  With your normal routine upended you have a chance to look at things with fresh eyes.

Here are two of my paintings. At first they look unrelated. The interior above is an oil of the artist Edward Hopper's boyhood home. The living room has heavy wooden planks for floorboards that were layed down in the 19th century. They show they've been scuffed and gouged over the years but were built to last. They're the picture of solidity and unchanging permanence.

Yet they've been polished and pull in the ever changing sunlight  that dances on Hopper's porch. Reflected on the darker tones of the varnished boards the light is deepened but somehow grows more remarkable and mysteriously important.




Philip Koch, Yellow Arcadia II, oil on panel, 18 x 24 inches,
2009 (at Somervile Manning Gallery, Greenville, DE).


Like the Hopper's Parlor painting, Yellow Arcadia puts a closed-in space of a mountain pond next to a vista of wide open seas. As rainwater runs down the mountain's granite shoulders it collects to form this intimate foreground pond. The water's calm surface color suggests stillness and rest. 

But water is so used to inevitable change. Eventually the pond overflows its bounds and streams down and out to the sea. Like the water we have to be ready for change. Like the water we're all moving to some new place we can only glimpse. And in that unexpected new place things almost always turn out alright.

Popular posts from this blog

Edward Hopper- Looking Out

-
Image
Edward Hopper, Cape Cod Morning,   oil on canvas, 1950,  Smithsonian American Art Museum Above is a painting I've loved for some forty years. I'm fortunate to be able to see it often as it lives in the SAAM in Washington, D.C. . This painting contains a real clue to Hopper's art. I visit there often as it helps me learn how to see better. Often writers will talk about the loneliness of Hopper's paintings or how his figures feel isolated and rarely interact with one another. While there is some of that in Hopper's painting, it begs a question- why is Hopper's art so widely loved? I'd offer a couple of answers. First, he's one of the most talented painters and was able to invent visual equivalents for strong emotions we humans experience as we live our lives.  He saw color combining in unexpected ways and offered up generous servings of the most delicious color combinations. Yum. Usually, as in the SAAM's Cape Cod Morning above, when he paints
Read more

Maier Museum of Art Acquires Work by Philip Koch

-
Image
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
Read more

Edward Hopper's Poetry of Empty Rooms

-
Image
I've just been invited by Rachael Solomon who is the Program Director of the  Edward Hopper House Art Center in Nyack, NY to have a mini solo show in one of their galleries.. We'll be showing some of my paintings of the interior of Edward Hopper's Cape Cod studio where I've had the great pleasure of enjoying 13 residencies since 1983. The Edward Hopper House Art Center is the boyhood home of the famous American realist artist. So much of what Hopper became stemmed from his early years there. So I'm excited to do the exhibit. It will be coming up in March through May of 2012.   Hopper didn't teach. Yet I learned more about how to become a good painter by studying his work than by any other single thing. Art after all is visual. Words, even beautifully and aptly spoken can get in the way. And Hopper was legendarily tactiturn. I suspect had someone asked Hopper how to paint an empty room, his terse reply would have been "Don't!".  Above is one of h
Read more