The Landscape of Painting » oil painting

Back to Acadia National Park

Stephen Springer Davis — Mon, 28 Nov 2011 16:10:51 +0000

For the first time in a of couple years I had the opportunity to do some painting at Acadia National Park in August. Here’s a painting from what were several really beautiful days there. In the past the weather has been cool and foggy, so it was great to visit when the sun was actually blazing.

Nice Day in Acadia | Stephen Springer Davis | 2011

The South of France is as Beautiful as You’ve Been Told (cont.)

Stephen Springer Davis — Tue, 20 Sep 2011 20:08:08 +0000

The dominant colors of summer in the South of France are purple-ish and orange-ish, courtesy of lavender and poppies. I can’t think of fields of plants in America that could compete for powerful color. I feel privileged to have been there.

Added to the extreme color of poppies and lavenders is the fact that everything in France is beautiful. The French seem not to suffer with the American impulse to replace amazing ancient—okay, in America, somewhat old— buildings with some modern crap designed by contractors, not architects. The French are happy to put beautiful modern furniture inside a building which actually is ancient. Or to put a modern, architect-designed structure next to buildings in a medieval town. But there seems no wholesale destruction of the really old in the name of modernity.

And through it all the farmers continue to grow poppies and lavender, for which I am very grateful.

The South of France Is as Beautiful as You’ve Been Told

Stephen Springer Davis — Tue, 13 Sep 2011 21:25:26 +0000

We had the good fortune this summer to go to the south of France. English friends who moved to the small town of Ales seven years ago invited us to stay in their guest house. Not having to pay for hotels for most of our stay in France was a big help, of course, but that fact enabled us to be more than tourists. We got to see how people like us live in a foreign country. Plus, our friends were very generous with their time, and were happy to be our tour guides.

Where they live is on the edge of Provence, which makes their lives much less hassled. Ever since the publication of A Year in Provence, Provence has been over-run with visitors. Although our trips took us through Provence, enjoying the incomparable beauty of the landscape, for the most part we were only occasionally in the swell of tourists. I’m happy to say that because we speak French pretty well, we were never taken for Americans. One time we were asked if we were Polish or Swedish.

Winter Paintings Are Depressing, or So They Tell Me

Stephen Springer Davis — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 20:48:35 +0000

Winter Hillside | Stephen Springer Davis | 2010

I don’t know, of course, what your winter has been like, but where I live we got slammed with something like 80″ of snow starting in December. That’s really weird because we rarely get any snow. But in honor of this precipitation, I’m posting one of my few winter paintings.

In my experience, no one ever buys winter paintings. Galleries hate them consequently, and discourage me from including any in shows. I’ve over-ruled the owners in the past, thinking I must be wrong, but the result is always the same. I’ve talked to visitors at my shows about what they do and don’t like, in a general way. (This might be a good time to read my post about the Perfect Painting) Generally visitors have said they don’t like winter scenes because they’re reminded of, well, winter. That means freezing temperatures, the high cost of heating, scary driving, missed work. For non-skiers, who are probably the majority of us, winter is bad news. But sometimes a scene with snow is pretty anyway and has to be painted.

I’m not so tough as to paint en plein air in the winter. It’s uncomfortable enough to paint under a hot sun. In the winter I will strictly take some pictures and do the painting in the comfort of my studio. Did I mention I hate winter?