Drawing and Painting Ogunquit, Maine

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Philip Koch, Narrow Cove, Ogunquit, oil on panel, 12 x 16 inches, 2021


Above is my new painting of the Maine shoreline just in front of the Ogunquit Museum of American Art. It was painted in my studio based on the on location vine charcoal I drew when my wife Alice visited the museum in October (see below).

For decades I was painting outdoors with my oils and a French easel. Working like that brought a lot paintings I am proud of.  Just as important I learned so much about what it means to see creatively. 

More recently I'm doing more painting in oil in the studio with the aid of vine charcoal drawings that I bring back indoors from outside excursions.



Philip Koch, Narrow Cove Ogunquit, vine charcoal, 8 x 12 inches, 2021


For me the real purpose of making paintings of the outside world is that they invite us to explore our inner world. In a strong painting unusual shapes or unexpected chords of color will touch us down deep. 
They awaken a language of energy and feeling that we may have forgotten. First making a drawing from nature before I paint slows down my process and affords me more time for a final vision to mature in my mind's eye.

Here's a photo Alice took of me as I was making the Narrow Cove charcoal. Just a few steps away in back of me is the Ogunquit Museum. Pretty nice neighborhood to go looking at art.



 

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