James HartmanThrough the Trees, Oil Painting2025
2025
About the Item
Artist Comments
Artist James Hartman began this painting by creating texture with homemade tools. He envisioned standing at the edge of the woods, looking through to an indistinct light. The oil colors were allowed to drip and settle into the textured surface, enhancing depth and movement, while his tools helped define the landscape in a way that captures shifting light.
About the Artist
When James Hartman was in art school, he became fascinated with the Society of Six, a group of artists who painted en plein air (outdoors) and exhibited together in the San Francisco Bay Area during the early 20th Century. James's paintings of the Northern California landscape pay tribute to some of the great Bay Area artists of the past. His expressive scenes feel alive through his vibrant use of color and his painterly brushwork. James’s paintings have an immediate visual impact from a distance, yet up close, dissolve into a series of confident marks and strokes. There is a simultaneous complexity and steadiness in his flattened, color-blocked planes. Knowledge and observation are essential elements of James’s working practice. To this end, he spends a large proportion of his time painting on location. His body of work captures the fresh and sunlit essence of the coastal California hills.
Words that describe this painting: trees, texture, bright, woods, sunlight, panoramic, forest, expressionism, nature, oil painting, blue
Through the Trees
James Hartman
Oil painting on stretched canvas
Finished black edges
Ready to hang
One-of-a-kind
Signed on back
2025
24 in. h x 54 in. w x 1.5 in. d
5 lbs. 15 oz.
- Creator:
- Creation Year:2025
- Dimensions:Height: 24 in (60.96 cm)Width: 54 in (137.16 cm)Depth: 1.5 in (3.81 cm)
- Medium:
- Movement & Style:
- Period:
- Condition:Through the Trees. James Hartman. Oil painting on stretched canvas. Finished black edges. Ready to hang. One-of-a-kind. Signed on back.
- Gallery Location:San Francisco, CA
- Reference Number:Seller: 790921stDibs: LU922115811132
James Hartman
California painter James Hartman was born in St. Louis, Missouri, in 1950. He studied art at Meramec College. When Hartman was in art school, he became fascinated with the Society of Six, a group of artists who painted en plein air and exhibited together in the San Francisco Bay Area during the early 20th century. Hartman's paintings of the Northern California landscape pay tribute to some of the great Bay Area artists of the past. His expressive scenes feel alive through his vibrant use of color and his painterly brushwork. Hartman’s paintings have an immediate visual impact from a distance, yet up close, dissolve into a series of confident marks and strokes. Hartman has participated in numerous shows throughout the Bay Area and his paintings are now included in collections both private and corporate internationally.
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View AllArtist Comments
Artist James Hartman draws inspiration from the experience of seeing sunlit colors and details appearing through the strong vertical tree pattern. He expresses the painting sections to appear like stained glass. James highlights small areas where collaged 100-year-old paper show through the surface, he does this in a non-disruptive way. James applies heat to fuse the oils into a mixture of beeswax and damar crystals to seal the work.
About the Artist
When James Hartman was in art school, he became fascinated with the Society of Six, a group of artists who painted en plein air (outdoors) and exhibited together in the San Francisco Bay Area during the early 20th Century. James's paintings of the Northern California landscape pay tribute to some of the great Bay Area artists of the past. His expressive scenes feel alive through his vibrant use of color and his painterly brushwork. James’s paintings have an immediate visual impact from a distance, yet up close, dissolve into a series of confident marks and strokes. There is a simultaneous complexity and steadiness in his flattened, color-blocked planes. Knowledge and observation are essential elements of James’s working practice. To this end, he spends a large proportion of his time painting on location. His body of work captures the fresh and sunlit essence of the coastal California hills.
Words that describe this painting: expressionism, encaustic, beeswax, collage, antique ephemera...
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Artist Comments
Vibrant blues and greens create a dreamy forest scene. A winding trail cuts through the tall, dark trees, leading to a clearing bathed in light. Pops of warm ...
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The composition depicts an expressionist rendition of a winter forest. It transforms grays, tans, and browns into lavender, rust, and deep blue. Simplified de...
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Artist Comments
Building up many layers of color in oil paint and cold wax medium, Valerie then used scrapers to reveal the tree trunks in an abstract landscape. Warm orange and yellow trees standing in front of a cool blue and green background. Heavy texture complements the expressionist palette. The piece is part of a series of three works. Although Valerie did not create them as triptych, the three hang well close together.
About the Artist
Valerie Berkely uses her finger tips as brushes to create her abstract paintings. For Valerie, the art is all about the process, the paint, her mood, and the moment. She admires the artist Wolf Kahn, who once said, “the picture is the conclusion of an experiment in which the hint of an image becomes actuality." Like Kahn, Valerie’s paintings combine pictorial landscapes with painterly abstraction. The vibrant primary colors capture the hues of the sun rising and setting, and the texture of her fingers across the surface divides sea, land, and sky. There is something very dreamy about these works, exemplified by their color, texture, and atmospheric quality. Valerie’s first “art epiphany” was seeing Seurat's La Grande Jatte at the Art Institute of Chicago. “Bowled me over! I actually fell down. And I knew I was to become a painter.”
Words that describe this painting: woods, forest, trees, nature, expressionism, nature, non-representational, oil painting, blue
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The sun filters through a grove of trees, casting cool shadows on the ground. Brown, green, and pale green trunks provide varying visual points, creating quiet ...
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Artist Comments
Building up many layers of color in oil paint and cold wax medium, Valerie then used scrapers to reveal the tree trunks in an abstract landscape. Warm orange and yellow trees standing in front of a cool blue and green background. Heavy texture complements the expressionist palette. The piece is part of a series of three works. Although Valerie did not create them as triptych, the three hang well close together.
About the Artist
Valerie Berkely...
21st Century and Contemporary Abstract Expressionist More Art
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