Monday, December 19, 2011

Full Article: Revisiting the Hudson River School, American Artist: Plein Air Painting, Fall 2011











If you'd like to get the magazine follow the link: http://www.artistdaily.com/blogs/specialissues/default.aspx

Thank you for reading.

Grisaille to Color in 3 hours


Erik Koeppel Grisaille 9am (made with burnt umber and white)




Colored painting at noon
This painting isn't finished yet, but I hope it gives an idea of how useful an under-painting can be if it's kept light, and has good warm/cool relationships. Now I just have to spend a few months refining it. 
Palette used (Burnt Sienna, Yellow Ochre, A mixed Royal Blue, and White)



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Part 3 The Imagined Landscape Workshop

Imagined Landscape Painting by Erik Koeppel
In the third lesson, I did glazing and highlighting on the demo from last class, and Lauren did a sun painting demo. Lauren asked me not to post the sun painting lesson until it's finished so here are some photos from the first half:
Student's homework along with Erik and Laurens demos upper left 
Erik's Imagined Demo painting  
Student Homework

Student Homework

Student Homework   
This was a fun series of classes, and hopefully I'll post on the Sun Painting Demo soon. If you haven't already, please have a look at Part 1 and Part 2

Thanks for reading.

Tuesday, December 13, 2011

GCA Blog: Hudson River Fellowship News!

GCA Blog: Hudson River Fellowship News!: We are pleased to announce that the 2012 Hudson River Fellowship is moving to the heart of the White Mountain National...

Thursday, December 8, 2011

Part 2 The Imagined Landscape Workshop

An Imagined Landscape by Erik Koeppel      
We Started by gathering around the art-books and reviewing principles from last time     
Below are some student homework drawings. They're much more dynamic than last class. Students were encouraged to study master tree drawings, and emphasize those characteristics of the tree that reveal its sculptural qualities and movements through space. Three dimensional thinking and proportional design are very important in imagined/invented work. I believe that working these things out in the studio helps a lot to make sense of what we see outdoors.






I went on to do a demo where I added a tree into the sky and earth transition we created last class:

The panel on the side was used to demonstrate and clarify principles as we went.



This is as far as I got, so I'll try another layer on it next week and demonstrate some glazing
Lauren also worked on her demo from last week, which was very helpful for everyone.
Lauren Sansaricq Demo   
We also discussed paint layers in a studio painting in progress

A student painting in progress

Discussion comparing an outdoor study to the larger studio painting

A Claude Lorrain drawing we talked about

Another great Claude Lorrain drawing in a really great Italian book one student brought. Thank you!
Thank you for reading!

Monday, November 28, 2011

Drawings from the Skyline Drive, and a Visit to the National Gallery in Washington

Erik Koeppel Sketch of Monticello (back view)
On Black Friday, while many Americans were tearing down the walls of retailers for Christmas shopping deals Lauren and I were sketching on the Skyline Drive near Charlottesville, VA. This stretch of highway in the Shenandoah National Park runs along a beautiful ridge with countless views in every direction. We didn't have our paints with us so we did a number of quick pencil sketches from the various vistas, and then found some great spots to just take in the sunset, and afterglow. Our goal in pencil sketches like these is to capture the gesture and placement of the mountains, and get an idea of how we might compose them in a painting in the studio. If I go on to paint any of these later, I'll use principles of light and atmosphere, combined with imagination to fill in the missing information. Lauren asked me not to post her sketchbook pages, but here are mine:

Erik Koeppel, Sketchbook




This was such a spectacular place, and I can't wait to go back with paints!

On the way home, we went to Washington, D.C. to the National Gallery and  the Portrait Gallery to check out the Hudson River School paintings and other masterpieces therein. We looked at tons of fantastic work, but also sneaked a few photos of things that we don't already have pictures of in our art-book collection.
Thomas Cole, Arcadian Scene

Thomas Cole, detail from Crawford Notch, NH

Corot detail from a very large painting

Cropsey

George Inness
I thought this Inness tree detail was well suited to our imagined tree drawing workshop discussion
It was a very inspiring trip, and we're excited to be back in the studio painting away!

Thank you for reading.