Philip Koch Paintings

Hopper In 2006 I first visited Monhegan Island off the coast of Maine. The small island has earned a special place in American art history from  the steady stream of artists who followed the advice of their charismatic teacher Robert Henri to go there and paint. Two of the best to take the advice were Edward Hopper and Rockwell Kent. Both spent important time early in the 20th century painting on the island. The commanding promontory Blackhead that stretches eastward out into the Atlantic inspired both of them make repeated paintings of it. Hopper The first four images are all small oil studies Hopper made of Blackhead. The final four paintings are by Hopper's art school classmate Rockwell Kent. Though the temperament of their paintings differ, what the two shared was an almost obsessive willingness to create painting after painting of a motif that obviously fascinated them. There's a sort of driving youthful energy to their engagement with Blackhead....

Charles Burchfield, Salem Bedroom Studio Feb. 21, 1917 Burchfield Penney Art Center, Buffalo, NY Burchfield Penney Art Center posted this Charles Burchfield watercolor on their Facebook page. Who doesn't remember worrying as a young child about supposed ghosts or monsters waiting to creep out of your bedroom closet in the middle of the night. (Under my bed was full of them too). Leave it to Charles Burchfield to take this normal childhood terror and turn it into serious art. He took his childhood sensations with him into his adult life. Using his profound knowledge of painting and his good eye he gave these emotions permanent visual form.  His painting above takes a cloth draped over a chair and seems to turn it into a ghost. In his hands the clothes hanging in the closet become creepy spectral accomplices.  In August my wife Alice and I traveled from Baltimore to the Salem, OH family home where Burchfield grew up and began doing some of his most importan...

      Philip Koch, High Trees, oil on panel, 28 x 21"     2015. To be included in the Burchfield Penney     Art Center's Live Auction at their annual Gala     Sept. 19, 2015 I like to make lists. Here are some bullet points I sometimes give out to my students.  As you can see I failed badly at keeping the list down to just seven ideas.  The 7 Secrets of Art, and a few more .                                            Philip Koch Secret #1. That there are Secrets. #2. That there are in fact rules (though they can be elusive to understand). #3. Tones (darks and lights) are more important than color. #4. Shapes are more important than color. #5. Silhouettes are more important than details. #6. Intervals of empty space ar...

As part of my being the Artist-In-Residence for this year at the Burchfield Penney Art Center , I traveled with my wife Alice to Salem, Ohio, the childhood home of the artist Charles Burchfield. The Burchfield Homestead Society  restored the home where the career of the visionary artist began. It is very  well worth a visit for anyone who admires Burchfield's work. Above is Alice cooling her heels on Burchfield's front porch swing.  It's a modest but art historically important home. Burchfield made many of his powerful early paintings peering out through its windows at the neighborhood. Below is a vine charcoal drawing I made standing at the rear of his yard looking back at the house. At the far left of my drawing is a long one-story house that Burchfield would paint repeatedly.   Philip Koch, Salem, Burchfield House, vine charcoal 6 1/2 x 13", 2015 Here is probably his most famous painting of that building, The Night Wind,  (no...

Later this month I'll be traveling to see some art. My destination is Salem, Ohio to visit the home where the painter Charles Burchfield grew up and began his life as an artist. Along the way we'll stop in Pittsburgh to see the new Edward Hopper exhibition at the Carnegie Museum of Art (through Oct. 26). Have found myself looking at one of my favorite Hopper's Sailing from 1911 that's one of the standouts in the Carnegie's Permanent Collection. It's an imagined view of a sloop on the Hudson River where Hopper grew up. It was included in the historic 1913 Amory Show and was the first painting Hopper ever sold. He would have to wait another 10 years before selling another of his paintings.  I've always found the painting remarkable for the way Hopper's boat surges by us with energy. It seems in a moment it will have sailed out of our view altogether. Hopper had some tricks up his sleeve to emphasize that sense of movement. Here's the...

Charles Burchfield, Tree in Landscape, 19 1/4 x 14", conte, undated  Burchfield Penney Art Center, gift of the Burchfield Foundation So often when we think of famous artists we remember them for their paintings, as well we should. But the hands that held their brushes were guided by someone with an incredibly astute eye. So often we see evidence of how well they saw in their drawings. Two years ago I was able to see the major show of Edward Hopper's drawings that Carter Foster of the Whitney Museum in New York put together. It was a profound reminder that Hopper drew beautifully. This summer as the Artist-In-Residence at the Burchfield Penney Art Center in Buffalo, NY  I've been examining  the drawings of Hopper's contemporary, Charles Burchfield, at close hand in that museum's Archives.  Charles Burchfield,  Landscape with Distance Houses , conte, 8 x 10 1/2" 1915  Burchfield Penney Art Center, Buffalo, NY, gift of the Burchfield ...

Philip Koch, Chestnut Ridge Sunset:Cool pastel, 10 x 7 1/2", 2015 I'm just returned from another week at the Burchfield Penney Art Center (BPAC) in Buffalo, NY. This was my second stay as part of my being Artist-In-Residence there for this next year. It is a chance to do a lot of my own paintings all around Western New York State. This is the landscape where I was born and grew up- it's indelibly etched in my visual imagination. On a personal level it is deeply satisfying to me to paint here. One of the places I'm painting is at Chestnut Ridge Park, south of Buffalo. It's a place that was an important source for Charles Burchfield's art. Above and below are two pastels I made about the vista there that looks north to Lake Erie. Philip Koch, Chestnut Ridge Sunset: Warm pastel, 10 x 7 1/2", 2015 Both are based on the vine charcoal drawing below that I made on location with my portable easel. Philip Koch, ...