David Dunlop is a painter and lecturer based in Connecticut. He is the author and host of the PBS series Landscapes Through Time, which wrote about earlier today here on Lines and Colors.

I came across his work from that program when I first saw it a few years ago. In the course of the show, he paints quick oil sketches in the manner of several late-19th century painters. His own work is a little more toward interpretive semi-representational landscapes than I would have expected, but I very much like some of his compositions suggestive of reflections in water, and those in which he walks the line between abstraction and naturalism a bit closer to the representational side.

Dunlop’s website has a gallery of his paintings and links to a number of his projects, including Landscapes Through Time — which I believe is due for production of a second series — and a 4 DVD independent series, Painting Landscapes with David Dunlop, and another titled Painting Skies with David Dunlop.

I haven’t seen the latter two sets yet, but I assume they are similar in style to Landscapes Through Time, and you can probably get a feeling for them by viewing his YouTube videos on Ten Minute Oil Sketch, Fog Painting at Prouts Neck, ME and others.

Of particular interest is Dunlop’s blog, on which he engages in more of his thoughtful analysis of various aspects of painting, particularly as it relates to the 19th century painters with whom he feels an affinity.

Dunlop gives lectures and teaches workshops, with information both through his own site and Hudson Valley Art Workshops.

Landscapes Through Time is a 13-part PBS series, produced several years ago, in which landscape painter David Dunlop goes on location to places were several notable landscape painters, mostly from the late 19th century, painted.

Each episode is devoted primarily to an individual painter. In the half-hour episodes he talks about the painters, their methods, palettes and historical background, all while painting a sketch more or less in the method of the painter he is discussing.

It’s a fascinating, informative and well-done show, and Dunlop is a clear and enthusiastic presenter.

It’s currently playing again on the Create TV channel, an offshoot of PBS, in most locations on Wednesdays at 12:30 PM and Sundays at 6:30 AM.

Unfortunately, the asinine program managers at the channel, instead of repeating the episode from Sunday on Wednesday so you have two chances to catch it, as they have done in the past, are playing the episodes straight through, so you have to get up on Sunday morning at 6:30 to catch them all – or record them, defeating their own efforts to sell them on DVD.

But then, these idiots are determined to squander whatever potential is suggested by the name “Create TV” by doggedly doing their best to turn it into “Just Another Cooking Channel”.

I recommend the shows if you can catch them. Maybe they’ll run them around again before displacing them with “Tomato Salsa I Have Known” or something similar.

There is an excerpt of the show on Monet on YouTube that gives a good idea of the nature of the shows, including Dunlop’s insightful description of the influence of Chevreul’s color theory on Monet and the other Impressionists.

The DVD’s are available through Dunlop’s site, and there is a listing of the episodes here and more detail in this PDF. There are also some other video clips.

Apparently there was a successful (as far as I know) Kickstarter project to get a second series off the ground, but I don’t know the status of production.

Today’s episode, if you can catch it, is “American Impressionists in Giverny”.

[Addendum: Connie Simmons, who produced and directed Landscapes Through Time, has kindly informed me that the second series is in the editing stage. I’ll try to keep you updated when it becomes available.]