William R. Davis 1

Drifting in Light Wind

2016

This wonderful coastal Maine landscape of Kittery Point, Maine was painted by contemporary American artist Erick Ingraham (1950-). Ingraham was born in Philadelphia, PA and became a ...

A fine luminous Maine harbor scene by contemporary American artist William R. Davis (1952-). Davis was born in Somerville, Massachusetts, and grew up in Hyannis Port where he took sa...

A lovely impressionist winter oil painting with a farmer going into the barn painted by American artist by Harry Leslie Hoffman (1874-1966). Hoffman was born in Cressona, Pennsylvania, studied in Paris, worked at Yale University, and was a student at the Art Students League with Frank DuMond. He spent much of his life associated with the Old Lyme Colony in Old Lyme, Connecticut. His work was greatly influenced by the impressionist style of Willard Metcalf and became well known for his landscapes, still lifes, and underwater paintings. Oil on panel, signed lower right and on verso, titled in pencil on verso “The Old Barn...

A fine impressionist landscape in the Souhegan Valley of New Hampshire, probably Wilton, by American artist Chauncey Foster Ryder (1868-1949). Ryder grew up in New Haven, Connecticut...

Horses with carriage. Oil on panel. 16.1 x 24.2 cm

"In the series “This is a real place!” I was fascinated by how the underside of the pier at Saint Simons Island, GA was like a readymade collage. The way the pilings and rails divide and frame the spaces between them looks artificially imposed on the scene until you notice the way the waves bounce off the pilings and the railings cast shadows on the water. In some iterations, I chose to simplify the structures of the pier and lighten the values so that it would emphasize the detail in the water. Likewise, I omitted a family of starlings and their droppings in favor of highlighting the geometry of the architecture and the colors and patterns of the water. Making paintings in a series allows me to investigate the results of making different decisions about an image. How I crop or stylize it, the manner in which I apply the paint, what gets included or excluded all add shades of meaning to each piece. Additionally, depictions of the same subject in different weather, seasons, times of day, and tides allows me a deeper understanding. I notice more relationships, colors, and details every time I paint the subject. Every painting is a pile of decisions. Playing with removing more and more details to see what is truly important sometimes improves the painting. The fewer elements you include in an image, the more each one means, and the more important it is to get each thing perfect. At times I like to paint every single detail I can find in a scene, and other times I feel like the unadorned components are sufficient to hold each other in a satisfying composition. I often add simplified shapes to my paintings to highlight the presence of absence or to heighten the importance of each area by creating stark visual contrasts. ⁠The physicality of the paint also plays a role. I used highly textured, thickly applied paint to construct the solid structural elements, and luminous layers of thinly glazed paint for the delicate linework and subtle blending of the water." - Brooke Lanier...

"In the series “This is a real place!” I was fascinated by how the underside of the pier at Saint Simons Island, GA was like a readymade collage. The way the pilings and rails divide and frame the spaces between them looks artificially imposed on the scene until you notice the way the waves bounce off the pilings and the railings cast shadows on the water. In some iterations, I chose to simplify the structures of the pier and lighten the values so that it would emphasize the detail in the water. Likewise, I omitted a family of starlings and their droppings in favor of highlighting the geometry of the architecture and the colors and patterns of the water. Making paintings in a series allows me to investigate the results of making different decisions about an image. How I crop or stylize it, the manner in which I apply the paint, what gets included or excluded all add shades of meaning to each piece. Additionally, depictions of the same subject in different weather, seasons, times of day, and tides allows me a deeper understanding. I notice more relationships, colors, and details every time I paint the subject. Every painting is a pile of decisions. Playing with removing more and more details to see what is truly important sometimes improves the painting. The fewer elements you include in an image, the more each one means, and the more important it is to get each thing perfect. At times I like to paint every single detail I can find in a scene, and other times I feel like the unadorned components are sufficient to hold each other in a satisfying composition. I often add simplified shapes to my paintings to highlight the presence of absence or to heighten the importance of each area by creating stark visual contrasts. ⁠The physicality of the paint also plays a role. I used highly textured, thickly applied paint to construct the solid structural elements, and luminous layers of thinly glazed paint for the delicate linework and subtle blending of the water." - Brooke Lanier...

American, b. 1972 Edward Minoff Graduated with honors from NYU's Tisch School of the Arts. Throughout his high school and college years he studied painting and sculpture at the Art ...