My Painting Included in Masterworks Exhibition at Cedar Rapids Museum of Art

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Philip Koch, Cape Cod Morning, oil on canvas, 33 1/2 x 50 inches, 1994

The Cedar Rapids Museum of Art in Iowa is commemorating its 125 anniversary with a feature exhibition 125! 125 Masterworks from the Collection (through Jan. 17, 2021). Sean Ulmer, the museum's Director  let me know my painting Cape Cod Morning is included in the Masterworks exhibition. 



It's a huge honor to me to be hanging alongside some heavy hitters from the museum's permanent collection including Grant Wood, Henry Ossawa Tanner and Lucas Cranach the Elder.

How my painting came to be is something of a "throw caution to the wind" tale. 

On the main highway that runs the length of Cape Cod there's a particularly intriguing building that housed a bank. Back in  the '90's was painted a subtle yellow color I just loved. The trouble was I like to paint from direct observation rather than photographs, and the best point of view of the house was right in the middle of the busy highway.

I'm a sensible person, but only to a point. After pinning away to paint the yellow house for several years I broke down and set up my easel on the 4 foot wide raised concrete island in the middle of the highway. It was so narrow I had to remind myself not to step back as I painted or I would have been squished a pickup truck. 

I think the Muse was on my side that week. There was one point when the police slowed as they drove by and gave me a long slow look. But, perhaps deciding landscape artists are expendable, they went on their way.  After three precarious mornings of painting I survived and the painting turned out well.


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