Vermeer’s Geographer
In Jan Vermeer’s great painting, The Geographer, of 1662, we have a paradox: a wanderer’s spirit suspended in the confines of an interior. Vermeer is forever painting light coming through windows, but in this painting, [...]
Keeping it Real
Art historians call George Hendrik Breitner (1857-1923) one of the leading "Amsterdam Impressionists." However, his paintings don't align with the kind of artwork we commonly associate with Impressionism. That’s because Breitner and his peers ignored [...]
Hopper’s Poetry of Modern Isolation
“Poetry is a man and a woman and the distance between them.” – Lawrence Ferlinghetti Edward Hopper’s figures have no one talk to. They’re entirely self-absorbed, isolated from each other even when together, and most [...]
On Becoming the Artist You Already Are
There’s an odd distinction some people make between being “someone who paints” and being an artist. Beginners, especially, aren’t sure what to call themselves; they’re far more likely to say they’re “learning painting” than to [...]
Narrative Painting: Guillermo Lorca’s Painted Operas
By David Molesky The Chilean artist Guillermo Lorca (b. 1984) and I first met years ago at the master painter Odd Nerdrum’s farm in southern Norway. Initially he struck me as a South American James Dean, handsome [...]
What Makes a Painting ‘Expressive’?
It’s natural to assume that the subject of your painting (what it’s a painting of) is what affects your audience and gets feeling across. For example, you might expect a vase full of flowers to [...]
Seeing the Light
“Light is therefore color.” - JMW Turner Surely one of the reasons we go to painting is for the light. But not just any light! Numerous artists throughout history have used light as a visual [...]
Figurative Portraits that Look Deeper
The human portrait remains one of the most challenging and rewarding of artistic pursuits. Getting an accurate image down is hard enough, but then there's getting the LIFE into it. To those not privy to [...]
It’s All Been Done
By Peter Trippi, Editor of Fine Art Connoisseur From the Fine Art Connoisseur September/October 2023 Editor’s Note: “The Ancients Stole All Our Great Ideas. And I want them back, thank you very much.” Mark Twain wrote [...]
Passion and Purpose: Judging the PleinAir Salon
Recognized as one of America’s most accomplished impressionistic plein air painters, New Mexico artist Kevin Macpherson judged PleinAir™ Magazine’s monthly Salon for July. Kevin wrote about his thought process as he sifted through more than [...]