French Impressionism

En Plein Air / From Life

After struggling and painting indoors in my studio for a while, from the photographs that I took of the various places that I had visited, and working away to make “products”, I stumbled upon the philosophy and practice of French Impressionism.

This method, that is handed down to me via my teacher Jerry Fresia – to whom it comes through a lineage from Robert Henri, John Singer Sargent, and through association from Monet – is not about making pictures of things, instead it’s about getting a sensation, an enchantment that impacts us when we are out in the Nature and we witness Her. The method is about how to not make copies of the nature but about how to make art.

As Matisse said, “The artist’s job is not to transpose something he’s seen but express the impact the object made on him….”

It is about staying in the space of wonder and frisson, and expressing that enchantment and the visceral sensations to the canvas.

Follow the button below to go to my earlier Studio paintings.