Many people might be surprised to discover that Edward Hopper, a painter synonymous with his meticulously staged scenes of metropolitan life, was a devotee of the ephemeral aims of Impressionism. He was known to paint on the streets of Nyack en plein air (or “from the fact” as he called it), and like Monet or Renoir before him, paid rapt attention to the way that natural light moved through landscapes both urban and natural. October 11-18, the Edward Hopper House Museum & Study Center located at Hopper’s childhood home in Nyack has scheduled a full week dedicated to the hands-on exploration of the iconic American artist’s en plein air process, with workshops, tours, and two new exhibitions among the week’s offerings.
The Hopper’s Nyack Plein Air Pop-Up Week kicks off on Saturday, October 11 with “Hopper’s Nyack ‘Flash Sketch Mob’” from 10am to 2pm (registration online), in which artists of all skill levels are invited to travel to the Museum and join other artists, led by Bill Batson, to capture the sights and people of the village, many of which Hopper immortalized in paintings himself.
Also starting Saturday and continuing throughout the week during Museum open hours is “Would be Artist” family walking tours. Borrow or purchase a “Would Be Artist” kit (titled after an inscription Hopper carved on his own pencil box) filled with materials and take the kids on a self-guided mini-tour of Nyack discover and sketch places in Nyack that the artist frequented, observed, and drew.
Art history buffs will definitely want to head to the Museum on Tuesday, October 14 from 6 to 7:30pm, when Hopper scholar Elizabeth Thompson Colleary delves into the history of the en plein air creative process, presenting rarely seen works that Hopper and his wife and collaborator Jo Nivison painted in the outdoor settings where they found inspiration.
On Saturday, October 18, from 11am to 2pm will be the Plein-Air Painting Family Workshop, complete with hands-on instruction from Creative Arts Workshop, at Nyack Memorial Park. Adult artists of all skill levels are also invited to bring their own supplies and create their own works in the park.
Saturday evening from 5 to 7pm the Edward Hopper House Museum and neighboring Perry Lawson Fine Art are capping off the week by hosting a joint opening reception for their two respective shows that feature the work of acclaimed contemporary, Maine-based painter Jill Hoy.
The Museum’s “Side by Side” exhibition (which runs from October 10 to February 15) celebrates the creative relationship of Hoy and the late painter Jon Imber, whose 23-year marriage became an ongoing artistic dialogue much like that of Hopper and Nivison’s. Next door, “Jill Hoy: Narratives of Form & Color” showcases figurative and landscape paintings that capture the immediacy of Hoy’s experience and the richness of her imagination—a contemporary expression of en plein air that is electric with color and the movement of light.
For more information about Hopper’s Nyack Plein Air Pop-Up Week or other upcoming events at the Edward Hopper House Museum & Study Center visit Edwardhopperhouse.org, call (845) 358-0774, or email info@hopperhouse.org.
