Philip Koch Paintings

      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, ...

Here's Edward Hopper's  Pennsylvania Coal Town  from the Butler Institute of American Art . I love the contrast of the deeply saturated yellow ocher house against the bright whites of the figure's sleeve. And the shadowy  off-whites of the  window curtains draw you in with a sense of mystery. When people write about Hopper they so often turn to themes of emotional isolation and loneliness. They rarely talk about his color and his amazing gift for evoking the feeling of bright sunlight. Yet that's exactly what drew me to Hopper's work when I was starting out as a painter. Hopper in his 20's went to live in Paris three times. He saw the work of the French Impressionists first hand. He liked what he saw- particularly the brilliance of the way they rendered sunlight with dazzling color. Above is a Hopper oil of Paris from 1907. It is a symphony of creamy yellows, whites and grays.  One can't understand Hopper without giving his Impres...

Charles Burchfield, Early Spring Sunlight, watercolor, 1950 Burchfield Penney Art Center, Buffalo, NY  Later in July I'll be returning to the Burchfield Penney Art Center (BPAC) in Buffalo, NY for my second stay as part of my Burchfield Residency at the museum.   I'm well into my fourth decade of painting and I have a different style to my landscapes than Burchfield. But one of my strengths as an artist I feel has always been my willingness to learn from other artists. His work has been speaking to me for many years. What I'm finding is what he's telling me is something other than what I'd  anticipated.  One of the first things I did at BPAC was to make a careful oil copy of the left hand section of Burchfield's watercolor Early Spring Sunlight  that the museum brought out from their Permanent Collection.  I wanted to make the copy to get some new ideas from of Burchfield's color choices, hoping to add to my usual color...