Knecht shows personal collection

Home Culture Knecht shows personal collection

[slideshow id=9]Professor of Art Sam Knecht will open the doors to his personal art exhibit Saturday in the Daughtry Gallery in the Sage Center for the Arts to show off 40 original paintings. The artist’s reception will be from 2-5 p.m. Sunday, and the exhibit will close Feb. 19.

Knecht’s work will primarily focus on inspiration he drew from the surrounding landscape.

“There will be paintings of waterfalls, Great Lakes shorelines, some with lighthouses, and inland rivers,” Knecht said. “One’s aim is to capture the essence of a scene in how it presents light, weather conditions, time of day and season of the year.”

To capture these conditions, he often had to hike up trails, painting equipment in tow, in order to get the perfect point of view for his piece. He saw the adventure as a nice change of pace after completing his “Signing of the American Constitution” painting for the Kirby Center after two years of work.

“[The painting’s] demands of portraits of 42 Founders along with meticulous depiction of the interior of Independence Hall left me in a state of happy fatigue,” he said. “I joked that ‘All I want to do now is to paint a tree…something that won’t complain if I get a branch wrong.’”

Knecht, however, did not just paint a tree or landscapes. He will also feature portraits in the show.

“The exhibit presents several character portraits of people I have encountered that intrigue me on a visual or even narrative level,” he said.  “Others are portraits of student models that have posed for my classes.  I often teach by example, by demonstrating the picture-making process in class for students’ benefit.”

One of those students, senior Nell O’Leary, has decided to pursue advanced education in art because of Knecht’s inspiration.

“What I appreciate most about Professor Knecht’s philosophy is his love of the medium,” O’Leary said. “He is masterful in capturing the energy of a scene merely expressed with the handling of the paint and emphasis on light. Instead of producing a flat and static scene which could be achieved with a photograph, the viewer is captivated by the life and expressed motion.”

That appreciation for different mediums will be on display at the exhibit. To capture both the landscapes and portraits, Knecht drew on his experience with oil, watercolor, drawing media and egg tempera paint.

“This range of media means that I continually set forth challenges for myself by keeping my picture methods fresh,” Knecht said.  “I let instinct and response to the subject dictate my method.  It’s a kind of artistic cross-training.”

          charper@hillsdale.edu