Massachusetts artist John MacDonald is an illustrator as well as a painter.
His landscapes, both plein air and studio work, are sensitive to the changes in light across the seasons, at times with a soft, tonalist approach, and at other times with more sharply defined edges. He often includes creeks and streams in his compositions, through which light cascades as well as water.
His website includes both large and small studio work, as well as a selection of plein air paintings.
You will also find a selection of prints in a process he calls “digital woodcuts” (images above, bottom three). In these, he starts with a painting in white gouache on black Arches paper, scans it, and then works in Photoshop with digital drawing tools to create layer after layer of individual colors, much like the traditional printmaking processes in which he was trained. You can access a PDF outlining his process from the same page.
MacDonald teaches painting workshops in various locations. His work will be the subject of a solo show at the Harrison Gallery in Williamstown, MA from April 4 to April 29, 2015.
[Via PleinAir Collector]
