"Marine Sunrise" Ernest Principato ("Prince")
About the Impressionists style of painting:
This style of painting seeks to represent objects in their atmospheric veil, enveloped with light and air; it was not to paint local colors, but the effects of light under which everything momentarily changes color.
That is to say, the color of an object as seen by a keen observer, will change depending upon; the light used to illuminate the object, the distance and atmospheric conditions between the observer and the object, shadows cast on the object, and reflections from nearby objects.
So, an object who’s local color is green, may in fact appear more yellowish than green when exposed to the direct rays of the sun. Or depending on how shiny the object is, it may actually appear blue when reflecting the sky. If you paint this object with green out of the tube, or some value of green, you will not have a faithful reproduction of the objects color.
Claude Monet began his quest of seeing and painting the effects of these conditions on color by painting his Haystack, Poplars, and Rouen Cathedral studies beginning in 1891.
If one wishes to paint in an Impressionistic way, they must detach themselves from local color and train their eyes to see the color that exists at that moment under a particular set of conditions
About The Cape Cod School of Art 1899-1930:
In 1899, an artist named Charles Hawthorne founded The Cape Cod School of Art in Provincetown Massachusetts. Although trained as a tonalist, over the course of the next 15 years, he trained his eyes to see and paint color as Monet had, and devised methods of teaching these principles to his students.
He instructed students to paint “notes” of color for each of the large masses in a painting and then to modify these notes by comparing them to adjacent notes and adding appropriate pigments in an attempt to recreate the true color of each note. Once all the large masses were stated correctly, then variations within each large mass would be identified and notes created for them. This process would continue until all notes of color had been identified and correctly stated.
No attempt was made to paint by value, as Hawthorne believed that a painting with all colors notes correctly stated would inherently have correct values. While a tonalist painting, where all colors were modified by adding white to lighten them or black to darken them, might have the correct values, but the colors would not be correct.
Hawthorne did not believe in drawing an object and “filling it in”. Rather he believed that if you stated all color notes correctly and had the correct shape for each note, the painting would draw itself. To this end he had his students paint models on the beach in full sun light using only a putty knife. He emphasized not painting features but said, “The right notes of color will tell more about the appearance, the likeness of a person, than features or good drawing”. These paintings became known as “Mudheads”
In 1919, a young student named Henry Hensche began studying with Charles Hawthorne and become an assistant instructor at the school in 1927.
Charles Hawthorne died in 1930 and the school was closed.
About The Cape School of Art 1930-1987:
After Hawthorne’s death, Henry began teaching Hawthorne’s principles and opened The Cape School of Art in Provincetown. The name of the school was changed slightly to avoid potential legal issues with the Hawthorne heirs.
Henry explored new methods of teaching students how to see color and developed “Block Studies”. He painted blocks of wood various colors and used them to set up still life’s which were typically painted out of doors in full sun light. This freed the student of the concern for shapes as the blocks were simple to create and allowed the student to concentrate on the block colors, variations in color within each block surface, and the surrounding environment which were part of the painting.
Once a student had progressed beyond Block Studies he would graduate to doing simple still life paintings, again out of doors in full sunlight.
Throughout the school and regardless of the methods used, Henry remained true to the principles developed by Hawthorne.
The school continued until Henry retired in 1987.
About The Cape Cod School of Art 1987-2003:
On his retirement, Henry sold the school to Lois Griffel, one of his students. She continued with the school although changing its name back to The Cape Cod School of Art. In time, the school building became in disrepair and required large sums of money to refurbish it and the enrolment declined, in part due to the increased cost for students to live in the Provincetown area. So Lois sold the buildings and closed the school in 1993.
About the Cape School of Art 2010 – present:
This past summer, a group of Henry Hensche students and disciples set about to resurrect the school. They have incorporated the school renaming it The Cape School of Art in honor of Henry. Classes will resume in the summer of 2011 and schedules can be found on their web site at www.capeschoolofart.com.
Date Last edited 01/23/2011