James McElhinney at Crown Point, New York
Travelers since the Medieval period have recorded their journeys by keeping journals noting itineraries, incidents and images. Voyages of exploration often had in their company artists like Jacques Le Moyne, John White or William Hodges, who filled sketchbooks with drawings and paintings with exotic destinations, flora, fauna and peoples. This practice was emulated by those following the Grand Tour, and further refined through the inclusion of chorographic drawing in the curriculum of eighteenth and nineteenth-century military academies. Alexander von Humboldt stressed the importance for exploring expeditions to include professional artists and naturalists. Decades before the invention of photography and cinema, works produced by expeditionary artists like Dominique Vivant Denon, Frederick Catherwood, Seth Eastman carried readers and print collectors off to faraway lands. Picturesque itineraries were popularized in America by artists such as William Birch, William Guy Wall, Pavel Svin’in and Jacques-Gerard Milbert. J.M.W. Turner’s Liber Studiorumdrew on this traditon, and upon a landscape esthetic codified two centuries earlier by Claude Lorrain.
Looking Northwest from 44.0308 x 73.4287. 16:00. Thursday september 10, 2020. Journal-painting. Aqueous media on paper. 3.5 x 10.5 inches. Crown Point or Pointe Chevreuse isthe tip of a penisula on Lake Champlain marking the historic boundary between the Haudenosaunee and Abenaki, also between Fremnch and British territory prior to 1759, when retreating French forces razed Fort St. Frederique and the British began construction on massive Fort Crown Point.
With the rise in popularity of plein-air painting, Sketchbook Traveler proposes a deeper engament with nature by focusing also on the history and science of any location one might visit. This more immersive approach to drawing and painting outdoors not only develops visual skills. It deepens our awareness of environmental conditions, the world around us, and our place in it.
On Friday, September 18 2020, James McElhinney will present a live ZOOM webinar from the fortified peninsula of Crown Point on Lake Champlain. This will be a pilot program–a trial balloon for future workshops and webinars to be offered on Needlewatcher Marketplace, and in partnership with Frederick Church’s Olana, Greeenwich Art Society and other institutions. To be notified of future events, please send us an email to:
wo*******@ne***********.com
