August-September 2019 / http://www.outdoorpainter.comExpanded Digital Edition Content
pool, and is flanked by large muscular hunks
of speckled granite. Arching overhead are
old yellow birches, gangly and wild. In the
distance, a summit of Wildcat Mountain rises
up steeply, presiding over the scene. Above
it is the clear blue mountain sky, flush with
a bounty of cumulus clouds drifting by. I am
excited. It has been hard to get here, but I have
found my home for the day.THE RITUAL
So do I just set up my easel and begin painting
what I see? No. I have to get comfortable with
my surroundings to know what I am dealing
with. Thus, the ritual begins. I drop my pack
and box in the shade, take off my shoes, and be-
gin to wander around. I sit on a rock here, and a
rock there. I crouch, then stand, then sit still for
a while. This is just the beginning.
After some careful consideration, I get my
chair and start to move it about, looking for
stable ground. I’m not looking for the perfect
spot — that doesn’t exist. Nature is not limited
by the four walls of a rectangular painting panel.
I am just looking for a nice place where I can see
all the elements I have decided to include in my
design. The goal of the plein air painter is not to
actually paint what he or she sees; it is to capture
the beautiful experience of a place.
After much deliberation, I find a tolerable
seat, and begin looking back and forth between
panel and scene, trying to estimate how I might
fit everything from such an explosion of beauty
into one small rectangle. I move my hand
around my surface, envisioning the placement
of various elements, until I am satisfied enough
to begin. Some introductory colors go onto the
palette, and the brushes start gliding around on
the panel. My mind searches for the form of the
pictorial structure I had envisioned.
I am so focused on the small and large
bodies before me, and how they fit together,
merging and coming apart, that I don’t even
remember that I have to pay taxes and bills, or
call this or that art dealer. Before long there
is a solid mess of paint covering the surface
of the panel, and I begin to be distracted by
hunger. I eat lunch while looking at the paint-
ing and the scene, and think about what’s to
be done. I then further withdraw, play a little
guitar, and sing songs. The light is changing
during my break, but who cares, I think. It
always does.
Eventually I feel more clear about how the
painting should go and I jump back in, once
again lost in the endless struggle for unity. On
and on I go, sometimes for the better, some-
times for worse — a metaphor for life! At a
point of frustration, I need another break. To get
away, I hop around on the rocks, looking out
for other paintable views nearby. After a brief
pause, I return to my panel and behold the light.
It’s perfect! Sometimes the changes make things
better. It’s hard work to make a big change, but I
go after it anyway. What is there to lose?
This story doesn’t have an ending. But it
should be noted that it wasn’t written on acomputer in an artist’s studio. It was penciled
“en plein air” into a sketchbook, while sitting
beside a beautiful emerald pool in the Ellis
River.
I must leave you here, as the afternoon
presses on, for there is more work to be done.
My opinion is that if you have had experiences
similar tothis one, you’re a plein air painter,
like me.Erik Koeppel (b. 1980) is a nationally recognized landscape painter known for reviving the techniques of
America’s first great art movement, the Hudson River School. For the past seven years he has left behind his
studio in the New York City metro area to exist closer to nature in New Hampshire’s White Mountains in an
effort to know deeply the poetic spirit of the landscape and its human effect.
Koeppel has spent over a decade studying masters, researching their writings and notes, and discovering
how they captured the feel of nature in their paintings. Now you can learn these techniques from this young
master. Preview Erik Koeppel: Techniques of the Hudson River School Masters below.Listen to Erik Koeppel’s
interview on the PleinAir
Podcast with PleinAir pub-
lisher Eric Rhoads, as they
discuss Koeppel’s tech-
niques for painting trees
and what he’s learned
over the years from the
Hudson River School and
nature.