#47 - Closer to Freedom

                                             
                                                              "Philly Subway"

                                                          "Contrast" (sketch)

                                                        "Contrast"

Dear Art Lovers:

I want to show you three of my newest paintings that show some real movement toward more freedom in my style.

I think I’ve talked quite often about how I want my painting to have greater freedom and expressiveness. I believe that this is one of the tenets of painting, in particular Impressionist painting. That is, you can consider that when you leave behind the notion that you have to represent an object or a scene in realistic terms, you can become more successful in presenting the true essence or nature of that object or scene with more clarity and power. You can invent and add what you want, and you can ignore and leave out what you don’t want in your painting.  And you can alter forms and colors to seek the impact you want. It’s all a matter of degree, and I believe I’m succeeding in moving further and further away from realism.   

What I tried to do in all three of these paintings is use the real scene as a departure point, and then simplify them, and add what I wanted and leave out what I didn’t want in my paintings.

So, that’s what I did in all three of these paintings – the subway tunnel, “Philly Subway,” and two versions of the view of my building, 915 Art, and next to it the underside of one section of an unused Reading Railroad bridge in “Contrast.” If you look carefully at the building on the right side, you can actually see the windows of my studio on the fourth floor.

There’s something else I’d like to mention to you. The Philadelphia Sketch Club (235 South Camac Street, Philadelphia, PA 19107) has a wonderful exhibit running from April 4 through April 26, 2014. And the exhibit, the 151^st Exhibition of Small Oil Paintings, contains one of my landscapes from Normandy, “Reviers River.” Actually, you can get a glance at the entire exhibit online at www.sketchclub.com.  The online version has another two of my paintings.  Of course, nothing is better than seeing the actual paintings at the Sketch Club, and seeing the actual exhibit will certainly demonstrate once again that there’s an awful lot of artistic talent in the Philadelphia area.

Please remember that you can double the size of the image by clicking on the image. 

Also, here's a link to the Sketch Club's website:

www.sketchclub.org

Thanks for listening.

Best,

William Kosman