The Inlander

“Fires of Spring in Big Woods”, Katie Turner, Watercolor after Charles Burchfield.

I revisited several books about artist Charles Burchfield recently and found some inspiration.  Burchfield was described as having three distinct periods in his artistic career.  The 1^st period was early mature work that focused on nature – sometimes realistically, sometimes decorative and sometimes fantasy with self-expression.  The 2^nd period he focused on farms, villages and cities of the mid-west.  Rarely painting people, he focused on the houses, factories and streets.  He continued to paint nature as well but it was secondary.

After a while he moved from sober cityscapes and began experimenting.  He took some of his early watercolors and pasted paper around the edges so he could expand them and develop compositions further.  He wasn’t really happy with the results but this led into his 3^rd period.

During this period he was now interested in a more personal and emotional interpretation of nature resulting in more powerful expressionist landscapes.

He became passionate in interpreting nature with imagination and stated, “This romantic land of the imagination, the mysterious North that has haunted me as a boy – it does not really exist, but how did it come into being? And is it possible I will someday wander through it as a spirit?”

His watercolors express his response to the Western New York landscape.  While I was reading, I found the black and white plates of his paintings extremely helpful to see his value designs.  Some designs are so unusual; I thought maybe that is why these pieces are so special?

Some interesting facts I came across in my reading:  Burchfield considered himself an “inlander in spirit” not preferring to paint the ocean.  He found a hay or wheatfield more interesting than the ocean.  He complained that he never learned to draw, despite him going to art school and having life figure drawing class. There is not even one nude drawing by him.  Experts believe he destroyed them because there are several clothed model drawings that were saved.

Burchfield is an inspiring artist to me.  His watercolors are a unique interpretation of nature.

Please share your comments below.

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Drawings by Georges Seurat

“Tree Trunks Reflected in the Water”, Georges Seurat 1883-84

This week I found several books in the library on Georges Pierre Seurat, the French post-impressionist artist.  Many of us have seen his painting, “A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte” with women and their parasols, children and pets playing while men lounge in the summer shade along the water.  It’s a soft, beautifully inviting piece of art.

Seurat is known for coming up with the technique known as pointillism.  He also had interesting ways of using conte crayons to draw on a rough surface paper.  His drawings inspire me.  They vibrate using a flow of short blurred strokes carving out contours of the subject.  The way he used the conte crayon was different and almost looks like pointillism with little dots left in the grooves of the rough paper.  Check out the sketches I’ve included in this blog post.

Have you tried pointillism? Please share your comments below.

“Horseman on a Road”, Georges Seurat 1883

“View through the Balcony Railing”, Georges Seurat 1883

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