STAR LETTER
What is Impressionism?
Having come late to painting (2011) my focus is entirely on oil painting; there is not time for anything else, yet despite that narrowing of scope when I ‘clip’ the magazine article every six months, I always re-read and file a significant number of articles from The Artist.
Mike Barr has presented us with several interesting articles but I was rather bemused in the February 2022 edition. The photograph illustrating Mike Barr’s article, , Rain (right) looks nothing like an impressionist painting to me. It appears to be painted in a traditional ébauche working up from a translucent dark base. I cannot imagine anyone following and developing the impressionist style and methods of 140 years ago into such a dark ébauche. I struggle, and fail, to think of any of the greats of Impressionism and PostImpressionism who would present such a low-key and predominantly narrow-range painting let alone the manner of the application of oil paint.
