"You can say that a picture has a sense of place, but in a painting, a landscape, to me it's the mood conveyed that counts. Constable, Homer, and George Inness convey a sense of place in their pictures, yet there is something else that goes far beyond that."- Ogden Minton Pleissner (1905 - 1983)
The Ogden M. Pleissner Gallery at the Shelburne Museum in Shelburne, Vermont is a real treat. Pleissner was a master watercolorist who was well known for his landscape and sporting paintings. The museum has taken his studio from Manchester, VT and made it a part of the gallery. It looks just like how he may have left it; complete with a painting in progress on the drafting table as though he stepped away for a little break.
Whenever I'm in Vermont, I make an effort to visit the gallery. It's home to over 600 of his paintings and every season they display a few dozen. The gallery does a great job rotating the pictures, so you always see something new.
I'm a great admirer of Pleissner and feel a real connection to his art. He studied under the famous artist/teacher, Frank Vincent DuMond (1865 - 1951) at the Art Student's League in New York who is also a part of my own "art lineage."
If you'd like to find out more about his life and art, check out The Art of Ogden M. Pleissner by Peter Bergh. This beautifully illustrated book has over 130 paintings with insight into his painting process and thoughts. I particularly enjoy his sporting pictures which are reminiscent of Winslow Homer and Frank Benson's work.
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