Perceptual Painting

"Drawbridge"
14 x 18
(c) Frank Hobbs 2013

Today I am tackling a topic that has been on my mind very much of late. It's the moniker "perceptual painting". Most of the painters whose work I admire would be categorized as perceptual painters--and I would be honored if I myself were categorized as a perceptual painter. And yet the term is not a familiar one to most people. So what in the world does it mean?

"Joucas Blue Door"
7 x 15, oil on linen
(c) Maggie Siner 2014

Perceptual painting is an approach to painting that involves working directly from the natural world, and painting what you are seeing. The perceptual painter works from observation (rather than from memory, from photographs, or from imagination). He stands in the presence of the motif, and experiences looking at it. I think a perceptual painter would say that working directly from the subject gives rise to a response that is categorically different than working from a photograph. After all, the human eyes work quite differently than the lens of a camera.

"Hat and Roses"
oil on linen, 26 x 32
(c) Maggie Siner 2012

In the words of Maggie Siner, perceptual painting "assumes a truth about the long education in seeing that is necessary to achieve mastery in painting." It also assumes a serious study of vision, and of how our visual perception works. 

I have written a number of posts about "SEEING". It's an important topic, because seeing is the foundation of successful painting, and it is hard to do!

"Favorite Words"
26 x 32
(c) Phillip Geiger

Perceptual painting is not the same thing as "plein air" painting. Plein air painting, by definition, occurs outdoors, typically with the landscape as the subject. But perceptual painting can happen in the studio (as well as outdoors, of course). And perceptual painting can apply to any subject matter. 

"Abandoned Factory"
(c) Frank Hobbs

I have illustrated this post with paintings by some of my favorite perceptual painters. For those who want to know more, I highly recommend the website Painting Perceptions. I'd be curious to know from my readers--is "perceptual painting" a term that you were very familiar with before reading this post?

Gardening

"Ready to Plant"
14 x 11, oil on canvas
(c) Lesley Powell 2015

The groundhog recently told us that we have six more weeks of winter. Despite what he said, I am thinking of spring! The clay pots stacked in my garage have seemed to be begging for planting season to arrive, and they provided the inspiration for a new series of paintings. I'm sure that the other artists in my studio building thought I was crazy

Cypress

"Cypresses"
Vincent van Gogh, 1889

My local newspaper recently ran an article in the Garden section about the cypress tree. I was delighted to see that the article focused on Vincent van Gogh's depictions of the beautiful cypress trees in the south of France. The article noted that the cypress species that van Gogh painted were most likely a fatter, more irregular type than the pencil-thin cypress that we see today. Hmmm.That helps explain