The methods and philosophy of every painter are intricately interwoven.  From the great artist Rembrandt, whose impasto reveals the humanity of his sitters, down to even the popular artists of yesteryear like Jackson Pollock and Andy Warhol, every artist’s philosophy is visible in the works they create.  Every piece of art reveals its content through form.  To put it even more simply, every work of art tells you something about the person who made it just by the way in which it is made. In this article I hope to give you a general outline of my painting method and purpose by briefly describing what it is to “paint from life.”

There are several phrases I use fairly often to describe my artwork. The two most common are painting from direct observation or from life.  Both of these phrases mean the same thing to me: to paint “from life” is to paint looking directly at objects, people, or places.  In this mode of painting the artist is not imagining a place and then painting it, nor remembering a place.  Here the artist doesn’t use a sketch or a photo for reference as a source, but rather is looking directly at the scene which he desires to capture and attempting to paint what he observes.

The term painting “from life” traces back many centuries and has been used in different languages by various cultures.  Northern Europeans in the 17th century used the terms ad vivum and Naer Het Leven , literally “from the life,” to describe paintings done from direct observation.  More recently the French Barbizon school and the Impressionists (Monet, Renoir, Sisley, Pissarro, Degas, etc.) were described as working en plein aire , literally “in the open air.”  This term is used quite frequently by artists of our day,  and the spirit of the phrase (to paint directly from nature) is certainly relevant to my work.  I tend to use this phrase less than others mainly because subjects like still lifes aren’t usually painted outdoors.

Alla prima is another French word which describes how paint is applied to the canvas. In alla prima painting the artist is applying (usually) thick paint to the canvas without any glazing or layering.  Many artists refer to this method of painting as painting “directly” because the final color the artist would like to achieve is mixed on the palette and then placed directly onto the canvas in one layer instead of using a series of glazes layered over many days to achieve the final look of the painting.  Great artists have worked with both methods. See the paintings of Jan Van Eyck (~1395 - ~1441) for an artist who glazes and the work of John Constable (1776 - 1837) or the oil sketches of Jean-Baptiste Camille Corot (1796 - 1875) for examples of painting which is more “direct.”  I sometimes use the term “observational immediacy” to describe the quality of paintings which capture a moment in time with the atmosphere and light of a particular scene, and this term describes a measure I often use to judge a work’s success.  Does the piece invite me to participate in the light, atmosphere and location of the scene it depicts?

With these methods I look at a subject and attempt to capture its liveliness on canvas or paper.  You may be wondering about the value of depicting ordinary subject matter.  What is it about ordinary life that makes it worthy of contemplation?  What's so exciting about trees, and buildings, and glasses and gourds?  Why spend any time or talent telling the tale of everyday life?

Since there are many different ways to answer this question, and since many other people have answered it so much better than I can, I will keep my reply succint.  Life is extraordinary. Colors are incredible.  Light is a miracle, but no one tends to notice!  The long and the short of this complicated question is that everyday our eyes take in more wonders than our mind could possibly count. The number and nature of these wonders is so astounding that they must be worthy of more than a meager nod of acknowledgment.  Whales and canyons, water and bees. The Author of these wonders should be praised, and painting is praise.

“Seasons and times, and moons and hours, Heav’n, earth, and air are thine; When clouds distill their fruitful showers, the Author is divine.” -Isaac Watts, 1719