Philip Koch Paintings

Winslow Homer 1836-1910 Next month I've been asked to deliver a slide talk at the annual dinner of the Baltimore Watercolor Society. My title for the talk is a little tongue-in-cheek, but it's an acknowledgement that watercolor can be the trickiest of painting media. But my big point will be that seeing the work of some previous masters of this delicate medium teaches how to enjoy our eyes on a deeper more satisfying level.  Three of the most important American watercolorists are Winslow Homer, Edward Hopper and Charles Burchfield. Let's start with Winslow Homer, who is photographed above wearing a natty three-piece suit that I bet he never wore to paint in.  Homer's watercolor Stowing Sail, (1903, Art Institute of Chicago) was the first painting I ever saw. My parents had a framed print of it hanging over our sofa. I distinctly remember as a 3 year old connoisseur I used to lie on the carpet and study it. I figured it wasn't very good.  ...

Philip Koch, The Reach, oil on panel, 10 x 15, 2015 Sometimes things take a while to unfold.  I've always found I do well when I've let time pass and return to paintings weeks or months after I've made them to see how I can understand them differently. Often they seem to softly call me back and whisper in my ear about changes they think will make them more clear and focused. Usually when I listen to them things get better. Philip Koch, Edward Hopper's Parlor, Nyack,  oil  on panel, 12 x 9", 2015 I've been working happily in my studio the last few weeks on a focused project of revisiting some oils from last year and adjusting their colors. Lights and middle tones are getting some new emphasis. Philip Koch,  Sonnet I,   oil on panel, 6 1/2 x 13", 2015 Here are a few from the group I've been working on. Some of them will serve as the basis for some new large studio oils. Philip Koch, Frenchman's Bay, o...

Philip Koch, From Day to Night,  oil on panel, 6 1/2 x 13", 2015 Sometimes the Muse just comes and whispers in your ear with her blessings and her marching orders. Happened to me last month. My wife and I had taken a few days to tour Virginia. We hit  the Nichols Gallery in Barboursville that carries my paintings and visited several Art Museums (that's me with an Edward Hopper at the Chrysler Museum in Norfolk below). The Chryler was new to us and was a big  surprise. I had no idea of its amazing Permanent Collection. Came back full of energy and determination to do a whole lot of new paintings. A driving trip to visit new art museums can blow some cobwebs out of one's head. And we had a ball.  My painting at the top of this post is a re-imagining of the Penobscot Bay in Maine, one of my favorite painting themes. There's something about the coast of Maine that feels like I've stepped out of time. When I paint it I often fall in to a ...

At my gallery talk last Friday evening on my current exhibition at Edward Hopper House Art Center in Nyack, NY I spoke about my development as a painter. Above is a photo taken before the crowd arrived of me standing with my painting  The Voyage of Memory, oil on canvas, 38 x 38". That's a favorite of mine that combines some serious notes of my personal history with a tip of my hat to Thomas Cole, the great grandfather of American landscape painting. Putting elements like that together is a bit unusual in today's art world. There was a time when I wouldn't have had the temerity to paint like that. Beginners start at the beginning.  When I began painting it was in the then tiny studio art department at Oberlin College. I quickly pieced together what I thought were the essentials of the modern art story: contemporary art had evolved more or less in a straight line from the first Impressionists, then the Cubists, then the Abstract Expressionists. Armed with ...

In preparation for my Artist Gallery Talk this Friday evening (March 6 at 7:00 p.m., free) at the Edward Hopper House Art Center in Nyack, NY I've been looking at my works that are hanging in their current show Philip Koch: Landscapes and Hopper Interiors. Here are some more images of works in the show with a little bit of background for each one: Hopper's Beach, Looking North, vine charcoal, 9 x 12", 2007. I drew this with my French easel set up on the beach on Cape Cod Bay, right below Hopper's Truro, MA studio. This sand dune in real life is enormous and deeply impressive. Nonetheless, Hopper never painted it, preferring to search longer and more widely to find just the right sources to trigger his painting imagination. Working where Hopper painted over the years I've learned to respect his extreme powers of selectivity. In them is a key to making art that moves beyond surface appeal to achieve real depth. Edward Hopper's Truro St...

Philip Koch,  Monhegan Dawn: Ochre , oil on panel  6 1/2 x 13", 2015 On Friday, March 6 I'm giving a gallery talk in Nyack, NY about the work in the Edward Hopper House Art Center 's current exhibition Philip Koch: Landscapes and Hopper Interiors . Naturally I've been mulling over what I want to say. The talk's at 7:00 and is free to the public.  The show is taking place in the house where Hopper was born and grew up. It's situated on a rise one block above the open sweep of the Hudson River, something that played a huge role in his youthful imagination. Years later he would build a studio for himself atop an 80' sand dune overlooking the waters of Cape Cod Bay in Truro, MA. And if one visits that studio that Hopper himself designed down to the last nail, one can't help but be struck by how similar it is in feeling to his Nyack home. That's no accident. Philip Koch, Sun in an Empty Room , vine charcoal, 9 x 12", 201...

Here's a selection of photos from the Edward Hopper House Art Center in Nyack, NY of their opening reception for their new feature exhibition Philip Koch: Landscapes and Hopper Interiors  that was held Saturday, Feb. 22.  Carole Perry, the Executive Artistic Director of the Art Center did a tremendous job hanging the show and sensitively lighting the works. Honestly I think this is one of my all time favorites of solo exhibitions I have had over the years. The work will be on display through April 12, 2015. Philip Koch in front of his oil The Voyage of Memory, with the oils  White Thicket  in the middle  Yellow Arcadia at the right . Deer Isle, oil on panel, 36 x 72" at right. Above the mantel: The Voyage of Memory, oil on canvas, 38 x 38" Some of the smaller works in the Hallway Gallery of the Art Center. Upper left:  Sun in an Empty Rood: Blue , oil on panel 12 x 16", to...