Nevada painter Charles Muench primarily paints landscape and figures, sometimes combining the two in paintings of figures or portraits in the landscape. Some of these take on the subject of nude figures wading in the shallow water of streams, in obvious admiration for the work of Swedish master Anders Zorn.

Muench also shows his respect for great turn of the 20th century painters of California and the American West — like Maynard Dixon and Edgar Payne — with whom he shares a love of portraying the rugged and colorful mountains and rock formations of those territories.

In all of Muench’s work, however, is his evident fascination with light, both in the rich colors his often brightly lit scenes provide, and particularly in values, the layers of contrasts of light and dark that play through his compositions.

You will sometimes find dark foreground giving way to light middle grounds, only to find the effects of dark and light repeated again in the distance, muted with atmospheric effect.

Muench also plays the the immediate characteristics of light on his foreground subjects, whether figures or the stones on which they sit, glistening in the waters of a softly cascading stream.

In larger reproductions, his work is painterly, with an almost casual surface effect, but carefully laid on a solid framework of traditional draftsmanship.

On his website, you will find galleries of his work in different subject ranges, along with a section of photographs titled “In the Field“, many of which show him working on location. I always enjoy seeing plein air painters working on their pieces in the context of the location, which, in Muench’s case, is often quite dramatic.

Muench teaches workshops and classes, which he lists on his site.

[Via Art and Influence]

Ken Knight is an Australian plein air painter who paints with superb economy, rich color and a beautifully textural surface, for which the word “painterly” seems inadequate.

Though it’s difficult to see in small reproductions, in larger images, his brush marks flow, scrape, jitter and dash across the surface — defining forms, carving out depth and deftly leading your eye through his often sweeping compositions. I assume he’s also using painting knives here, though to what extent I don’t know.

Knight balances colors that are vibrant but controlled with dramatic value relationships to create a sense of the light and space of the open Australian landscape.

On his website, and the sites of some of the galleries in which he is represented, you will also find his paintings of Venice and other locations from his travels.

There is a video on YouTube with a glimpse of one of his painting trips to Pilbara, in Western Australia; the camera is a bit shaky, but it’s interesting to see him painting on location at large scale and in windy conditions. There is also a time lapse slideshow of his progress on a “South Coast Seascape” (dunes, images above, middle).

[Suggestion courtesy of Kan Muftic]