This work is one of my favorites, and it was done totally in a class (over several months) in 2012 with my great teacher and painting mentor Kevin Cook, in New Paltz, New York. To date, it is the only painting I have interpreted from another artist. While at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City some years ago, a visit to their visible-storage area brought me to this breathtaking painting by William Sonntag from circa 1865. Sonntag was, in my opinion, an extremely gifted Hudson-River-School artist, but he didn't seem to be as well known as some his his contemporaries (such as Church, Bierstadt, Durand, Gifford, etc.). His paintings blow me away, and many of them can be found online (but unfortunately not this one; at least, not that I could find). I took some photos of this "River Landscape" through the glass of the Met's visible storage and wanted to learn something about how he painted landscapes by using the work as a reference in class. It was a wonderful experience, and I find that Sonntag's insight into landscapes and his treatment of light definitely influence me. I admire his work greatly.
This work is one of my favorites, and it was done totally in a class (over several months) in 2012 with my great teacher and painting mentor Kevin Cook, in New Paltz, New York. To date, it is the only painting I have interpreted from another artist. While at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City some years ago, a visit to their visible-storage area brought me to this breathtaking painting by William Sonntag from circa 1865. Sonntag was, in my opinion, an extremely gifted Hudson-River-School artist, but he didn't seem to be as well known as some his his contemporaries (such as Church, Bierstadt, Durand, Gifford, etc.). His paintings blow me away, and many of them can be found online (but unfortunately not this one; at least, not that I could find). I took some photos of this "River Landscape" through the glass of the Met's visible storage and wanted to learn something about how he painted landscapes by using the work as a reference in class. It was a wonderful experience, and I find that Sonntag's insight into landscapes and his treatment of light definitely influence me. I admire his work greatly.