Capitol Cider is a Public House on Capitol Hill in Seattle, WA, featuring hard cider, beer, wine, mead, classic cocktails and local spirits. It has two- levels: a lower level and the main floor. The main floor is a small dining room for about 50, where Aristides Atelier master copy work will be displayed. Upstairs, a 7 seat bar upstairs, facing the brick back bar (original wall on the building) and 15+ foot ceilings. The lower level has an 8 seat bar, fireplace, game room with shuffleboards, and a giant mural painted by Aristides Atelier graduate, Tenold Sundberg, featuring his interpretation of a work by Anton Otto Fischer.
Aristides Atelier students thoughtfully chose their master copy work, then researched their subject(s). We are pleased to share the writing of alum, David Dwyer, here:
Fitz Henry Lane (1805-1865), American Artist, born in Glouchester, Mass. Lane was a well-recognized marine painter and a member of the American luminist school of painters. This painting is of Owl's Head, a rocky promontory in Penobscot Bay, Maine just south of Rockport. The lighthouse and lighthouse keeper's house seen in the middle of the painting still exist, and are now part of a state park. This view of Owl's Head is from the southeast looking to the north-- so the painting shows a quiet late evening scene, with the sun setting in the west and the Camden Hills in the distance.
Mastercopy after Fitz Henry Lane
Owl's Head, Penobscot Bay
1862
Permanent collection, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
Original painting: 15.7" by 26"; Mastercopy painting by David Dwyer: 30" by 50"
I was attracted by the very peaceful composition, with clear foreground, mid-ground and distant hills. This type of painting is characteristic of Lane's paintings, with a large expanse of sky along with marine views.
The imprimatura used for the painting was a warm, transparent red oxide of mid-value, in an effort to lend a diffuse, warm glow to the painting. This chromatic imprimatura made the application of the primary layer of paint a challenge, since hues looked fairly neutray against the warm, very chromatic ground until the entire canvas had been completely covered with a first pass; at that point I realized that I could have stayed more neutral with the painting of the sky. It was also a challenge obtaining a digital image of the painting-- although the Boston Museum of Fine Arts does have a high-resolution image available, the chromaticity and overall value of the image could be quite variable depending on the computer monitor (or color printer) used-- always an obstacle in doing master copy paintings when one cannot directly vies the original painting and must instead use photographic images for reference.