Philip Koch Paintings

Philip Koch, Mansard Roof, oil on canvas, 22 x 44 inches, 2017 Last Thursday evening I put the final touches on my latest painting (above). Then on Friday morning I viewed an Edward Hopper painting in the Philadelphia Museum of Art's American Watercolor in the Age of Homer and Sargent  exhibition that reminded me how Hopper's influence has often steered me in my choices of what to paint.  When I was a kid I'd see these mansard roofs in the old sections of downtown Rochester, NY and wondered about them- they seemed radically different than the California-modern house I was growing up in. To my young eyes they were unfathomably old and mysteriously exotic. But even then I had to admit they created a more striking silhouette against the sky than more ordinary buildings. My painting stemmed from some drawings I made on location in Buffalo, NY as part of my being Artist in Residence at Burchfield Penney Art Center (BPAC). Tullis Johnson, one...

Philip Koch, From the Camel's Hump, oil on canvas, 42 x 72  inches, 1983, private collection I painted this large oil from a small plein air painting I made during my very first stay in Edward Hopper's former studio in S. Truro, MA.  The view is looking south at a panorama of Cape Cod Bay. The light is just after dawn. In the foreground is a strange feature- it's the hole in the ground where the distinctive dune pictured below once rose up. It was something of a landmark in Truro, known as the Camel's Hump. Edward Hopper, The Camel's Hump , oil on canvas, 1931 Munson Williams Proctor Arts Institute, Utica, NY That natural feature caught Hopper's eye during the second summer he and his wife Jo stayed on the Cape. He waited until the late afternoon's slanting light emphasized the dunes impressive volumes. To my eye it is one of his finest paintings and a keystone of the Permanent Collection of the Munson Williams Proctor Arts ...

Philip Koch,  Dune at Paine Hollow, oil on panel, 13 x 26 inches, 1984 There is a very funny story associated with this oil. I was up on Cape Cod in June of 1984 painting in the Paine Hollow area of S. Wellfleet, working from a tidal inlet off of Cape Cod Bay. Things were going well for the first hour or so when the wind shifted and a cloud of tiny black flies descended on me. I toughed it out for another 10 minutes but the swarm overwhelmed me and I raced back to the car with my painting. When I got back to the rental cottage I looked in horror at the wet painting’s surface which was covered with the tiny bodies of the insects. I asked my daughters if they’d like the job of removing the bugs if I paid them a penny for each insect. They were young enough that to them this was serious money. Armed with palette knives they began meticulously picking off the critters. They were taking their task very seriously so I left them to it and took a shower to get the remaining...

Winslow Homer, An Open Window,  oil, 1872, Portland Museum of Art, Portland, Maine Here are two paintings by two of my favorite American artists, Winslow Homer (1836-1910) and Charles Burchfield (1893-1967).    Differences abound between the hushed interior at the Portland Museum of Art and the glistening sunlight that dazzles our eye in the Memorial Art Gallery 's landscape. Each has its own color sense and distinctive mood. Charles Burchfield , Springtime in the Pool, watercolor,  1922, Memorial Art Gallery, Rochester, New York But both artists energize their paintings by doing something surprisingly similar- deliberately contrasting the regular horizontal or vertical lines in their compositions against prominently stated curves. Winslow Homer's woman stands erect framed by the vertical edges of the window. Homer contrasts the straightness of the right side of her dress against the curving arc of his models left hip....

You have to love this wild building. It's formerly the City Hall in Corning, NY, now transformed into the Rockwell Museum . My wife Alice and I visited there last weekend and became instant fans. Founded some 41 years ago with a focus on the art of the West, the Museum has recently embarked on a mission to broaden its focus to other schools of art.  And since January, it has a new Director, Brian Whisenhunt. Brian until recently was the Director at the Museum of the Southwest in Texas and before that Director of the Swope Art Museum in Indiana (where my solo exhibition continues through March 25, 2017. It really is a small world).  One of the first pieces to greet you as you enter the Museum is this bronze Deborah Butterfield untitled horse from 2000 (above). Nearby is the temporary exhibit Modern Masters, Contemporary Icons  on loan from the Old Jail Art Center in Albany, TX. I'd have posted images of some of its works (including...

Arnot Art Museum in Elmira, New York recently opened their innovative exhibition 23 Pairs: Considering Compare and Contrast  that matches 23 works from their own collection with 23 works borrowed from museums, galleries and private collections across America. I was honored to have my painting  Uncharted II  included in the show paired with the work of one of my heroes, the American Impressionist Willard Metcalf.  My wife Alice and I drove up to Elmira over the weekend to visit the Arnot for our first time to see the show. Christina Johnson who heads up Education for the Arnot kindly gave us a personal tour of the entire museum. Here she is with some of the signage at the beginning of the 23 Pairs  show. Here I am (grinning ear to ear) standing next to my painting with Metcalf's delicate oil The Hills in February  at the left. The March issue of Fine Art Connoisseur  magaz...

John Frederick Kennett (Am. 1816-1872), Water Scene oil on canvas, Eskenazi Museum of Art There are always a few places that exert an out sized influence on our lives. For me one such place was the Eskenazi Museum of Art in Bloomington, IN (formerly the Indiana Unversity Art Museum). The day after the opening reception for Swope Art Museum 's exhibition of my paintings done in Edward Hopper's studio my wife and I drove over from Terre Haute, IN to visit my old grad school, Indiana University.  Though I got my MFA degree in painting at IU in 1972 this was the first time since then I was able to visit the Museum. Me with Eskenazi's Kennett, Feb. 2017 In 1970 the painting above by John Kennett was the first piece to catch my eye when I arrived at the campus Museum, mostly because the scene closely mirrored the look of the beach where I grew up on Lake Ontario outside of Rochester. Is there any other painting that captures the glow...