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 accurate depiction of the world has to capture that spirit.


    

     Philip Koch, Late Autumn Sun, oil on canvas, 36 x 48 inches, 2019


The French Impressionist Edgar Degas said painters need to have the cunning of a criminal. Invoking my artist's license I join him as a partner in crime. It's for a good cause.



    Philip Koch,  Inland II, oil on canvas, 45 x 60 inches, 2020.


Somerville Manning Gallery's show of my paintings run from April 9 to May 8, 2021. 

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