Philip Alexander Carlton

Philip Alexander Carlton is a contemporary landscape painter redefining what it means to paint “an impression” of the American West.

Although he’s been painting for over 20 years, his interest in the landscape began in 2013, when he realized that his love of the outdoors and his skills as a painter were a logical pairing: he fell in love with plein air painting as a form of artistic expression and constant exploration. An attraction to extremes of light and color led him from his family home of Minnesota to the western United States, where his endless curiosity to explore new terrain fueled his artistic practice. His growth as a painter was built upon countless miles hiking and painting in Colorado, Arizona, and Utah.

Philip’s interest in the landscape is focused on capturing fleeting light and atmospheric conditions. Although his artistic philosophy is more ‘impressionist’ than ‘realist’, his work has a style which is anything but classically impressionist. His painting technique has been shaped by years of working almost exclusively on location. Rather than exhibiting the slow subtly most common among oil painters, his work involves bold brush strokes and heavy use of fast drying layers, opting to show vigorous marks rather than hide them. Over time, his oil painting has evolved into an aesthetic more commonly associated with acrylic or gouache.

The more one explores Philip’s paintings and sees them as a cohesive body of work, it becomes apparent that his impressions are built upon deliberate imprecision: wild and authoritative brush strokes remind the viewer that paint is a fluid medium, and chasing the sun is both a gift and a constant peril. At the same time, one immediately becomes aware of his reverence for exact value and color temperature. For him, a moment is recalled through broad patterns of light and dark values, warm and cold hues, and not through fine details of line or texture. This focus can be seen in all of his work, and is often most readily experienced in the small work that he has increasingly become enamored with creating.

As a relatively young artist pushing the limits of western plein air, he challenges himself to finish work on location, avoiding the aid of studio revision. Rather than being limited by field work, he finds that strictly working on location enables a sort of impression that often goes beyond capturing a single moment in time. His favorite work often combines every single moment of a two, three, or four hour field session. Every part of a scene is painted when the light and color feels most elegant, making for an image which often transcends the limits of reality.