Impressionist painting has been around for over 100 years. Where do you see your work, and would you describe it as something different? 

I would say my work isn’t different than other impressionist work. I go outside and paint the light that falls upon a subject, that is the same thing Monet and his contemporaries did.  I see my work as a continuation of that genre of painting. I try and seek out beauty and paint it with feeling.

How do your Impressionist paintings differ from the Masters of the 19th and early 20th Century?

I think it’s different in that it’s my own thing. It’s my interpretation of a subject or the light on that subject. I also feel I’m lucky to live in this time of artistic freedom. You can pretty much do anything right now, when it comes to art. That wasn’t always the case.

I notice in some of your newer works you are using similar color choices. Tell us about your use of color to capture nature. Do you work with a palet in mind, or does the landscape dictate your color choices? 

I read once that Van Gogh, one of my all-time favorites, had specific color schemes for different seasons. For instance, he would use blue and gold (yellow) to express the feeling of Summer. He was using the local color of what he saw in front of him without being formulaic. I do the same. My work is very much based on connecting to what I see, and when I paint, I’m using colors I see, and I sometimes push the colors. By ‘pushing the colors,’ I mean saturating them sometimes and other times subduing them. When I’m doing a series of landscapes in a particular season, they have similar colors throughout because they are based on direct observation. That observation allows me to paint without a formula, which has the desired outcome. I work with about 10-12 colors on my palette, but not all of them get used in every painting. So, yes, the colors I use are dictated by the light and the scene. 

When painting the scenes you come across, do you ever work from photographs?

I’ve been painting in plein air for 26 years now. It is this extensive training of painting outdoors which allows me to paint in the studio. Photographs don’t quite capture the pure light and shadow of a scene. I use my knowledge of plein air when I work from photos. Without this knowledge, it’s almost impossible to get the feeling of being outside in a painting. My paintings are executed about 80 percent of the time in the studio.

Have you experimented with other painting styles?

Yes, when I was growing up, I wasn’t aware of what I know now. I lived a sheltered and uncultured existence and thought that good art was all about good drawing. Not to say that drawing isn’t important, because I do take advantage of my drawing skills, but it’s not everything. I see lots of work that has nothing but good drawing. I look at this work, and I’m impressed by the technical skill, but I’m left without an emotional connection to the piece. Anyway, my work growing up was very rendered and tight. In college, I experiment with many different styles and mediums. My whole Illustration graduating portfolio was stylized pastel work. I just recently took up painting with gouache, which I think has helped my oil work. 

What determines a good painting from a great one?

I think a great painting, like any form of art, has to make the viewers have an emotional connection to it. So, I think it’s very subjective. What I think is a great painting, might not be the same for you. Recently, I was at the MET in NYC, and I had the pleasure of sitting in a room with what I think was a great painting. The painting “Arques-la-Bataille” by John Henry Twatchman isn’t much to look at in print, but when I was with that piece, it gave me goosebumps. That is what great paintings should do.

What is your end goal as an artist to hopefully achieve? 

I don’t think there is ever an end goal in art. Your skill level never gets to the point of end, or at least it shouldn’t get there. Having said that, I do have goals of moving my paintings in a more stylized direction —kind of like later work of the Russian Impressionist Nikolai Timkov.

Name and describe the Impressionist painters who most influenced you over your lifetime.

Well, of course, the French Impressionist Claude Monet is and always will be a significant influence on me. I got to paint in his Giverny Gardens a few years back. I must have been extremely intimidated because I did a horrible painting. 

Other lesser-known French impressionist painters like Pissarro and Sisley get my juices flowing. They both had a fresh way of looking at a landscape and were spot on with beautiful colors. 

Then there are the American impressionists like John Twatchman, Edgar Payne, Williard Metcalf, and so many more. What I’ve discovered most recently are the Russian Impressionists. When America was exploring abstract painting, the Russian painters were still painting in an impressionist way, and you can even see the lineage of artists handing down information that American kind of lost. Some of my favorites are Nikolai Timkov, Issac Levitan, and Konstantin Korovin. What I like about the Russian work in general is their boldness and design of the paintings are spectacular. 

I can go on an on about so many Impressionist painters that I love, but other art movements also inspire me. Some of my great art loves are Andrew Wyeth, Pierre Bonnard, and Richard Diebenkorn. All these artists are very different in style and approach, but they were all masters of their own devices.

You’ve traveled around Europe to paint. What has that led to you as an artist, if anything? 

My second love, only to painting, is travel. I love to explore new places and cultures and what better place to do that then in Europe. The location is steeped with history, and I love it. On a recent trip to Arles, France, I got to walk in the footsteps of Vincent Van Gogh. 

In my opinion, the work that Van Gogh did in Arles was the start of his mature style. I think where travel has led me as an artist is having a broader sense of the world. It has opened my eyes up to many possibilities I wouldn’t have dreamed of If I hadn’t traveled. 

Describe the plein air experience, and do you finish up in the studio or work with photos?

The plein air experience is very different, but a necessity to my work as an impressionist painter. It’s different in that you sometimes fight wind, bugs and extreme heat or cold. The studio is a controlled environment, and it’s easier to concentrate in the studio. Still, I love being out in nature, and that is a considerable part of plein air painting. I usually finish a painting on site. When I’m out painting, I often take lots of photos of my surroundings and paint different scenes based on those photos when I get back to the studio.

What does painting outdoors offer your artwork that working in the comforts of a studio not bring?

I’m often too literal when painting in plein air. I get so enamored by a scene that I paint it as is with no changes. In the studio, I’m freer to think about changing the compositional elements, which makes a better painting. A lot of the time plein air can be just a collecting information experience.

What are some of your favorite painting locations? Why? 

That’s a great question, and I guess France is pretty nice. I’ve painted there a few times, and it has the whole package of beautiful, great smells (like fields of lavender) and historic charm. The family and I vacationed in Cornwall, England, a couple of years ago, and that place has some of the most amazing light I’ve ever seen. Also, when I can get away from Western North Carolina and then return, it becomes new and exciting. I love the beauty of this area around us, and I love to capture it with paint.

Richard Oversmith www.richardoversmith.com