Local 'plein air' Artist at ArtOnWater Gallery Saturday
Northfield Artist Mark Daehlin will be at his easel at ArtOnWater Gallery on Saturday, September 27 from 3-8 pm. His work is in exhibition through October 11th.
There is something about seeing an artist at work. I am borrowing words from arts writer Marion Boddy-Evans when I explain that venturing out of the studio into nature (or an urban streetscape) the plein air artist is able to investigate and capture the effects of sunlight and different times of day on a scene. Mark paints the essence of what the scene is in the open air, focusing not necessarily on what he imagines or intellectualizes about the subject from the studio.
His works capture his impression of, say, a lovely garden, the neon signed facade of the Eagles Club on Water Street, a new perspective and interpretation of the Hvistendahl Family properties on the river, the Ames Mill, or Hidden Falls in May when the forest canopy is still open and the falls is swollen from Spring rains.
The exhibition at ArtOnWater Gallery includes a couple of dozen new works in oil, painted between May and August after Mark bought a house and moved to Northfield this year. His plein air paintings capture, in a couple of hours, the effects of light and shadows before the scene changes. He will have scouted out the locations in advance and arrives with the best selection of colors for the scene and sets up his easel at just the right place ready to work quickly.
This artist's use of impasto makes the surface of the painting a part of the combined color, subject, and perspective which captures his emotional response to the scene. His painterly 'Lilac Ecstasy" demonstrates his sensuous use of oil on canvas to capture the exuberance of the flowering bushes. The effect is more subtle in the country road scene in his "Springtime Palette' where the brush stokes and paint texture and thickness change partially due to his use of board instead of canvas to capture the delicate new spring growth of vegetation along a local country road
My favorites include a peek at a towering Old Main through the leafy branches on the edge of Manitou Heights in his "Summer Awakening', or his not so familiar view of the essential Carleton College skyline from a wooded, flowering hilltop in his "Northfield Looking Southwest". And, all winter you'll want to bring your coffee and sit a while in the morning sunlit and shadowed space he has created in his downtown 'Riverwalk Gazebo". Then there is a set the 4th of July flagged vistas of the Archer House....
Mark will set up his easel, canvas and oil paints outside of the gallery and show us how he works. If the weather is uncooperative, he will move, undaunted, inside the gallery to paint. Join us anytime from 3 - 8 pm to view his exhibition and see this exciting new to Northfield artist at work.
