Robert Henri - American 1865-1929

Top: Barnacle Rock 8 x 10 inches, Portland Museum of Art

"Brush strokes carry a message whether you will it or not. The stroke is just like the artist at the time he makes it. All the certainties, all the uncertainties, all the bigness of his spirit and all the littleness are in it." -Robert Henri

I found this wonderful quote posted on the blog Art and Influence by Armand Cabrera, and thought I should repost it here. Brushtrokes are so fundamental to painting. Expressionist painters emphasize them, while photorealist painters aim to eliminate them altogether.

The comments to the original post recommend a book by Henri called Art Spirit.

Edgar Payne - American 1883-1947

 Waves on the California Coast, 43 x 43 inches

Don't be afraid of trying a square format. It can be challenging compositionally but also very interesting.
Edgar Payne wrote a book titled “Composition of Outdoor Painting”.

Ralph Feyl - American

Morning Waves,
20 x 24 inches

The spray looks convincing because the artist has worked in a variety of hues to produce a pearly, rainbow effect, as light is refracted in the supended drops of water.
click here for more works by Ralph Feyl

Hermanus Koekkoek Snr - Dutch

detail

Details like the wet patch on the sail, dampened by the spray, show the amazing observational powers of these Old Masters of marine art, unaided by cameras. To those unfamiliar with the North Sea and The Channel, it really does have that silty grey appearance.

Alfred Thomas Bricher - 1837-1908

Ebb Tide

The American painter Alfred Bricher was a master of balanced, tranquil compositions. Bricher is known today as the last of the important Luminist painters, a style which he likely encountered in Boston during the 1850’s. He painted the coast at different times of day and under different weather conditions. Like his contemporary, Sanford Robinson Gifford, Bricher sought to capture the sublime and spiritual in nature through his treatment of light and atmosphere. Bricher also painted in the White Mountains with Bierstadt and Champney.

David James - English

Blown on the Wind

James preferred to create studies of the sea itself, rather than paint seascapes in the sense of topographical reproductions of a coastline. There is a purity about this approach to the seascape that has been taken up by many contemporary painters in the genre.

Edward Moran - English American 1829-1901

Yacht Race, 18 x 24 inches

Edward Moran was the brother of Thomas Moran, who also painted seascapes. He was born in England and lived in the United States.