Only you can be the judge! What ever happened to the expeditionary practice of journal painting? Did it simply evolve into the massive plein air phenomenon we’re witnessing today? One artist is keeping it alive through this extraordinary opportunity.
Artist James Lancel McElhinney incorporates many elements into his work, including history, nature, and travel, exploring itineraries and narratives that have shaped the American landscape. Now, the artist’s admirers and art enthusiasts alike have a chance to own a publication of his journal paintings, which are outstanding artworks in and of themselves. The deluxe edition of Hudson Highland Suite will be a limited edition of 50 11 x 14-inch archival digital prints based on seven of McElhinney’s Hudson Valley journal-paintings. Loosely bound in a fine Solander box with an accompanying chapbook, the publication is slated for release on November 1, 2017 with a retail price of $1,400.
About the artist: Delaware Valley native James Lancel McElhinney discovered his calling as a landscape artist while studying at the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture. In 2001 he embarked on a 12-year painting project exploring the process of development, desecration, and preservation of 19th-century American battlefields. Since 2006 he has been working primarily in book form, reviving the genre of journal painting practiced by historic expeditionary artists.
McElhinney’s work has been the subject of more than 40 solo exhibitions nationwide. He has taught at Pratt Institute, the Art Students League of New York, and other colleges and universities. He is the author of three books on drawing and painting, and has conducted nearly 100 oral history and podcast interviews for organizations such as the Smithsonian Archives of American Art, the Frick Center for the History of Collecting, Coleccion Patricia Phelps de Cisneros, the Center for Southern Jewish Culture, and others. McElhinney received a Visual Artist Fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts, an MFA in painting from Yale, a BFA from the Tyler School of Art, and recently became an associate member of the Appraisers Association of America. He lives in Manhattan with his wife, the art-historian Dr. Katherine Manthorne.
To learn more, contact [email protected].
This article was featured in PleinAir Today, a weekly e-newsletter from PleinAir magazine. To start receiving PleinAir Today for free, click here.
