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Showing posts from March, 2021

A Truthful Lie: Why It's Always Autumn in my Paintings

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     Philip Koch, Mountains by the Sea,  oil on canvas, 40 x 50 inches, 2019 Painting is about stirring our emotions. Once a museum visitor looking at one of my shows asked me if I only painted in the Fall. I was reminded of this as I gather together the paintings that will be in my solo show at Somerville Manning Gallery  next month.  I do opt for lots of oranges and reds when I'm choosing my paints. Actually I do a lot of my work outdoors when the greens of Spring and  Summer surround me.  But what I told that museum visitor was my paintings were about evoking how a scene makes me feel. There's a certain energy the intense light of the outdoors casts over a scene. Add to that a wind rustling the leaves and you feel almost like the world is softly vibrating.  Color choices in a landscape painting are about bringing the viewer closer to that  kind of experience .  I find if I push some of the color toward oranges and reds I get more of that vivid and lively feeling.  Any accura