The Artist's Road Painting the World's Beautiful Places

Summer

Truth in Nature

A Walk to the Water                   12 x 12"                   Oil

  John is preparing for a major solo exhibition at the Albrecht-Kemper Museum of Art titled, “Transcendence: Truth in Nature.” In the course of writing about the paintings for the exhibition catalog, he walks the reader through the four seasons and the inspiration and challenges they bring to the landscape painter.

   This week, we wanted to share some of his thoughts and paintings about Summer with you.

   "When we lived and painted at a higher latitude on the Hudson River, I was immediately aware of the lower angle of the sun there—an angle which increased all those interesting aspects of light on the landscape that are missing in summer here. The summer sun was never directly overhead. The “golden hours" of morning and evening light lasted longer and helped me understand fully the work of The Hudson River School. Finding subjects to paint any time of day there was not difficult. The light where we live now in the Midwest is significantly different. The sun in summer is more directly overhead throughout the middle of each day. The light can be very bright and harsh, which can eliminate important mid-range tonal subtleties and make it hard to see. Shadows can be reduced in more open areas to nearly nothing as are perspective and distance cues, making the painter’s job more of a challenge. Painting the summer day here requires more work to find a suitable subject and often a different way of interpreting the landscape in pictorial terms. This has lead me to new solutions and new kinds of pictures."

The Studio Boat II                   9 x 12"                    Oil

   We invite you to send us your thoughts on painting in the direct overhead light of Summer!