Philip Koch Paintings

Philip Koch, Bright October Sun , oil on canvas,  36 x 54 inches, 2019 All of us have places that somehow seem to have grabbed a hold of us. One of mine is the area near the mouth of the little Pamet River in Truro on Cape Cod. The above just completed painting based on this place has a long  history. It stems from 1983 during my very first residency in Edward Hopper's studio (that lies just beyond the dark far hill in the painting). Here's the smaller oil I worked from- Philip Koch, Bright October Sun, oil on panel, 14 x 21  inches, 2019 I had begun this smaller oil on the fall 1983 trip to the Hopper studio. Shortly after arriving I explored the mouth of the Pamet and set up my French easel there in front of my favorite view. This is what came back home to my studio from that trip. Philip Koch, Pamet River, South Truro, oil on panel, 14 x 21 inches, 1983 While happy with the painting I came to feel the one huge ...

Winslow Homer, Weatherbeaten , oil on canvas, 1894 Portland Museum of Art, Maine I was traveling in the last month. First to Portland, Maine where I attended Greenhut Galleries opening for their exhibition Maine: The Painted State that included one of my paintings. Also visited the Portland Museum of Art and soaked up one of their hallmark Winslow Homer oils, Weatherbeaten. It was painted just south of the Museum in Prouts Neck. Nobody painted surf crashing on rocks with the power and authority Homer achieved. Notice the deliberate way Homer painted his rocks. Ignoring details he paid special attention to their color. In the detail above we see how he marches our eye back into space with alternative bands of warm and cool. His closest rocks are reddish, a cooler gray on the next rocks farther back, followed by a warm dark colored finger of rock. Finally we reach the silvery cool green-grays of the surf. And Homer was something...

Charles Burchfield, Chestnut Trees, ink wash drawing, 1920 Cleveland Museum of Art Sharing a few more highlights from Cleveland Museum of Art 's just concluded exhibition Charles Burchfield: The Ohio Landscapes 1915-1920 (Part 1 of my appreciation of the show is available here  ). Two of my personal favorites were these two ink wash drawings (above and below). One of the things that excites me about Burchfield's work is how he can suggest the feeling of full color when he in reality he often limited himself to just yellows and grays. In these monochrome wash drawings we see the expressiveness of just resonant tones of dark and light. Charles Burchfield, Apple Orchard,  ink wash drawing, 1920 Cleveland Museum of Art Artists have the job of noticing things of importance others have overlooked and calling people back to take a second look. We've all seen dandelion seeds blown by the wind. Yet I don't think any other ...

It was Charles Burchfield's small Ohio hometown of Salem that first propelled his leap into his vivid fantasy world we know from his paintings. I've long felt a kinship with Burchfield.  I made the decision to become a painter while studying at Oberlin College, only a few miles from Burchfield's Salem. Like him I (briefly) attended the Cleveland Institute of Art (Cleveland School of Art in his day) and frequently visited the collections of the Cleveland Museum of Art that he knew well. I flew to Cleveland to catch the exhibition at the Cleveland Museum of Art (CMA)    Charles Burchfield: The Ohio Landscapes 1915-1920 shortly before it closed in early May. Organized by Britany Salsbury, one of the new curators at the Museum, the show draws both on the CMA's collection and loaned works from the Burchfield Penney Art Center in Buffalo.  Charles Burchfield, Church Bells Ringing,  Rainy Winter Night, watercolor, ...

Philip Koch, Coke Ovens, Leetonia, vine charcoal, 12 x 9 inches, 2017 Last week the Allen Memorial Art Museum at Oberlin College in Ohio purchased one of my works for their permanent collection. The Allen is widely regarded as one of the best college art museums in the country. Museum Director Andria Derstine made the selection of the above drawing from a number of my works on paper. The Allen was the biggest influence in my decision my Freshman year to drop my intended Sociology major and become a painter. It is deeply satisfying to see my art career come full circle and have my work enter the Museum.  It's an odd subject for a drawing- two gaping dark openings on an otherwise sun drenched hillside. These mysterious caves are long abandoned underground coke ovens. The subject seemed ripe with potential. The irregular black mouths of these caves suggest all sorts of possible meanings- some perhaps a bit eerie but mysteriously attractive at the same time. They're a r...

Philip Koch, The Arrival,  oil on panel, 45 x 60 inches, 2008 The other day I was over at my daughter Susan's new house. For the first time I had a chance to see the painting I had given her and Mike as a wedding present hung in its new spot in the daylight. Was happy to see it under natural light and that it is in a position where it's well lit without glare (I use a gloss varnish on my oils so that is sometimes an issue). Anyway, it seems the painting likes its new home. A memory of driving on the Park Loop Road in Acadia National Park- strong winds were sweeping over the islands in Frenchman’s Bay stirring up dark and light patterns on the water’s surface. The picture stuck in my mind to the point I had to make a painting about how it made me feel. Working entirely out of my head the forms are all invented.  Everything went through many changes before I get the feeling of driving movement that I needed to be the heart of the picture. It suggested to me ...

Art history is a living thing that whispers to contemporary artists. For me as a painter it's a wind that fills my sails, but I get to set the course. Above is a group of photos I pulled together yesterday to show some the background to my painting Edward Hopper's Kitchen: Open Door, oil on canvas, 40 x 60 inches, 2019 (the bottom image) In the top row the photo at the left is one I took of the studio bathed in morning sunlight when I stayed there in 2016. Hopper designed his painting studio down to the last nail. It was purposely built at the crest of a sand dune to allow unobstructed views in all directions. According to his wife Jo's journals, while she loved gazing out at Cape Cod Bay to the West, Hopper preferred looking inland over the then sparse rolling dunes. The middle photo is one my wife Alice took of me with my easel set up in Hopper's small kitchen painting one of the interior views. In order to create the largest possible room for him to paint...