Sean Forester

Nature . . . the mistress of all masters. -- Leonardo

I am a painter in the naturalistic tradition.  I work with north daylight in the studio and paint my landscapes in plein air.  People sometimes ask me why I do not use photographs or artificial lighting.  I explain that painting from life creates vitality and presence.  Nature constantly offers new possibilities to the artist: a tree in shadow will suddenly become illuminated; the expression on someone’s face may reveal itself after hours, or indeed weeks, of study.  

I take slightly different approaches to studio and landscape painting.  For figurative work, I use a limited palette.  Inspired by Titian, Rembrandt, Velazquez and Vermeer, I strive for both balance and drama.  But outdoor sunlight creates brighter colors, so I use a fuller palette and a more impressionistic approach, looking here to George Innes, Isaac Levitan, Monet, and Sargent.

I paint my vision of the scene.  Focusing on what I feel is beautiful or significant, I am not afraid to change what is in front of me in order to fulfill the needs of the painting.  An anecdote helps illustrates this point.  One day Carot was painting in plein air when a fellow painter noticed a tree in his painting that was not in the artist’s view.  When he asked where the tree was, Carot pointed behind him.  Similarly, Whistler said nature rarely produces first-rate compositions.  Beauty, harmony, and the internal coherence of the painting are important criteria, he argued.  Nevertheless, Carot and Whistler painted from nature all of their lives.  Similarly, while I may select or alter what I see, I try to be a humble and diligent student of nature.

Finally, I believe that the classical tradition is relevant to the contemporary world. The language of the old masters and nineteenth century impressionists can speak to us today if we choose a subject and an approach that have meaning.  Beautiful art has, and I believe always will, mattered to people.  But what subjects and approaches should one choose?  This is a question many young realist painters today are struggling with.  Although I have been painting since I was quite young, I decided to attend the Great Books Program at St. John’s College and study literature at Cambridge University before moving to Florence to learn classical techniques of drawing and painting.  I hope that my love of the humanities and my practice of poetry will enrich my art.  As Van Gogh said:

The figure of a laborer, some furrows in a ploughed field, a bit of sand, sea or sky, are serious subjects, so difficult, and yet at the same time so beautiful, that it is indeed worthwhile to dedicate ones life to expressing the poetry hidden in them. 

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