James Lumley
American Painter

- Monograph -

Beyond Impressionism

Addendum

ARTISTS ­ PAST AND PRESENT

Painters of the past from whom the author has drawn inspiration:

Albert * Beaux * Bellows * Braun * Bunker * E. Carlsen * Carpeaux * Cassatt * Cezanne * Chardin * Chase * Church * Corinth * Corot * Courbet * Crane * DaVinci * Degas * Derain * Dewing * Dow * Eakins * Frieseke * Garber * Gauguin * Gile * Hals * Hawthorne * Hensche * Hibbard * Hiroshige * Hokusai * Holbein * Homer * Hunt * Ingres *Inness * Kollwitz * Kroyer * LaFarge * Meichers * Metcalf * Michaelangelo * Monet * Murphy * Nolde * Paxton * Pissarro * Pushman * Redon * Rembrandt * Rodin * Rose * A Ryder * Sargent * Seurat * Sisley * Sorolla * Tanner * Tryon * Turner * Twachtman * Valasquez * Vermeer * Villon * Vonnoh * Wendt * Whistler * Zorn *

Painters of my knowledge who have studied with Henry Hensche:

Sam Barber * James Beatrice * Monte Becker * Kay Benton * Dottie Billiu * Sammy Britt * Clay Buchanan * Gerald Deloach * John Ebersberger * Cedric Egeli * Joanette Egeli * Anastasia Egeli * Arthur Egeli * Ingrid Egell * Susan Elkins * David Farrell * Thomas Friedrick * Frank Gannon * Fred Goldstein * Lois Griffel * Peter Guest * Richard Kelso * Gloria Lancaster * Elizabeth Lirette-Vest * Lillian Longley * Robert Longley * Margaret McWethy * Ken Massey * Charles Miller * Tom Moore * Richard Murchake * Dan Neidhardt * Hilda Neily * Steve Perkins * Nel Porter * Bonnie Roth * Susan Sarback * George T. (Tommy) Thurmond * Mary Ann Wanner * Lois Wilson * Mary Winterfield

Note: Though this list is long, it is not complete. Painters in the Hawthorne/Hensche tradition will be added in subsequent editions. If your name is missing from the above list, or you know of someone not included, please let me know and I will add their name.

SUGGESTED READINGS

Brettell, Richard R., Impression: Painting Quickly in France 1860-1890, Yale and the Clark Art Institute

Boas, Nancy, Society of Six: California Colorists, Bedford Arts Publishers

Clark, Kenneth, The Nude

Da Vinci, Leonardo, Treatise on Painting

East, Sir Alfred, Landscape Painting

Gerdts, William, American Impressionism, Abbeville Press

Gerdts, William and Will South, California Impressionism, Abbeville Press

Gerdts, William and Patricia Trenton, Eds. California Light, Laguna Art Museum

Harrison, Birge, Landscape Painting, Scribner’s

Harvey, Eleanor, The Painted Sketch: American Impressions from Nature 1830-1880, Abrams

Hawthorne, Charles, Hawthorne on Painting, Dover

Henri, Robert, The Art Spirit, Harper & Row

Hensche, Henry, The Art of Seeing and Painting, Gray, LA: Hensche estate

Hill, Edward, The Language of Drawing, Prentice-Hall

Hunt, William Morris, On Painting and Drawing, Dover

Poore, H. R. Composition, Dover

Rathbone, Eliza and George Shackelford, Impressionist Still Life, Abrams

Richer, Paul, Artistic Anatomy. Watson-Guptill

Speed, Harold, Oil Painting Techniques and Practice and Science of Drawing, Dover

Vanderpoel, John, The Human Figure. Dover

Westphal, Ruth, Plein Air painters of California: The North and The South, Westphal Publishing

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

My work is rooted in that of the Impressionists, in particular the studies of light and color made by Claude Monet. He showed us the beauty of an early morning dawn, the warmth of an evening sunset, the somber relationship of fields and woods on a stormy day. He shocked us into seeing the variety of color in nature. We no longer enjoy a landscape rendered in a narrow range of color; we know colors are changed by the light striking the scene.

I make all my paintings from direct observations of nature. Like Monet, I feel the sensation of life can only be gained by standing in front of nature. Only under a condition of existing light and atmosphere can we sense the beauty of a scene. I do not copy a scene --photography does a better job (although only within a limited color and value range) -- and I am not interpreting it through some psychological concept.

To capture the beauty of the natural world I use color to show the major planes of light striking a landscape at specific times of day under the same atmospheric conditions. I also use different colors, instead of shades of the same color, to show how the ugh changes shapes within the landscape. Showing how horizontal planes recede into the distance by these subtle changes of color gives my paintings a three-dimensional effect. I usually work no more than two hours on a painting before returning to it another day at the same time of day and if the same atmospheric conditions prevail.

When others compare my vigorous coloration with Impressionism, I demur. They misconstrue my artistic purpose. The Impressionists profess to imitate nature, painting it as it is. The result is often flat, arbitrary color that disregards the more profound truth.

As viewers, the more we become aware of how different lights affect the color of what we see, the deeper our feeling is for a work. Even though understanding a painting is in part intellectual, caring about one is emotional, a participation engaging the mind as well as the heart.

I attempt to have my work stand up to the best work of the ages. I strive not only to be as good, but to add something to our insight of the world around us.

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