Art Alert November 2008

I have been turning my attention more and more to New Hampshire’s White Mountains for painting locations. This painting,"Mount. Adams and Monroe in Autumn", is from the Presidential Range. I made a painted sketch on location there and used it to produce this painting in the studio. It is influenced by the American Luminist painting of the late 19th century. Many of the famous painters of that era actually worked in the White Mountains.


Luminism may not be a familiar term to many folks these days. In fact, my spellchecker flagged it as an error and suggested "Leninism"! Usually in a luminist painting, the sun is within the canvas, which makes the light seem to emanate from the picture. The object is to get "glow." Luminist pictures often have a stillness or even a spiritual quality that makes them very different from multicolored impressionist paintings, which tend to be characterized by dynamic compositions and flashy brushwork. I also used a far more restrained palette than usual here, only a few earth colors and white. A limited palette gives good color unity and has the added benefit of fitting in well with many contemporary home color schemes.


Stapleton Kearns