Philip Koch is best known for his landscape paintings.  His earlier works (1970-1992 approx.) are  primarily based on plein air oil studies.  They tend toward naturalistic color and while painterly in application have more detail than his later work.

Since the early 1990's, Koch started using soft pastel chalks for color studies and began to work more in the studio from vine charcoal drawings he had executed outdoors.  The resulting work tended towards brighter color and less detail than his earlier paintings.

Edward Hopper's paintings influenced Koch as a young artist to switch from abstract painting to working in a realist direction.  In graduate school his discovery of the American Hudson River School painters (Cole, Kensett, Church, Gifford) motivated Koch to begin painting outdoors.  Other significant influences include Rockwell Kent, Lawren Harris (Canadian), Winslow Homer, George Inness.  A second source of influence on Koch's paintings were the color-oriented American painters of  the mid 20th century such as Mark Rothko and Milton Avery.

His great grandfather (maternal) was John Wallace, a Scottish landscape painter. Grandfather (maternal) was John Capstaff, a photographer and the inventor of the original Kodachrome color film process while he was employed at Eastman Kodak in Rochester, NY.

Since 1983 Koch has had 12 residencies in the former painting studio of Edward Hopper in South Truro, MA on Cape Cod.

Philip Koch was born in Rochester, NY on March 30, 1948.

Education and Training:
Oberlin College, BA 1970, Indiana University, MFA (in painting) 1972
additional study Art Students League of New York 1968 & 1969.

Koch taught painting at Central Washington University in Ellensburg, Washington 1972 - 1973. Since 1973 he has taught painting and drawing at Maryland Institute College of Art in Baltimore, where he is Professor of Fine Art. Koch has lived in Baltimore, MD since 1973.  Since the late 1970's he has painted every summer in MA and Maine.

Major Museum Exhibitions: 

Unbroken Thread. Nature Painting and the American Imagination, the Landscapes of Philip Koch, organized by the University of Maryland University College, Adelphi, MD 2008, Maryland Institute College of Art, Baltimore, 2009, Cape Cod Museum of Art, Dennis, MA,  2009, Midwest Museum of Art, 2010, Saginaw Art Museum, 2011.(exhibition catalogue published May 2008 by UMUC with scholarly essay by Eva Allen, Ph.D. 100 pages).

Sense of Place: Landscapes from the Permanent Collection of the Saginaw Art Museum,  2008.

A Vision of Nature: The Landscapes of Philip Koch, Retrospective 1971 - 2004  University of Maryland University College, Adelphi, MD (exhibition catalogue with scholarly essay by Eva Allen, Ph.D. published by UMUC. 120 pages). 2004-2005.
New England: Dreams and Reality.

The Landscapes of Philip Koch, Cape Cod Museum of Art, Dennis, MA 2003.
Phillips Museum of Art, Franklin and Marshall College, Lancaster, PA (two artist exhibition) 2002 Swope Art Museum, Terre Haute, IN, solo exhibition 2001 (also 1995) Rahr-West Art Museum, Manitowoc, WI, solo exhibition 1999
Blanden Memorial Art Museum, Fort Dodge, IA 1998 (catalogue The American Landscape: Paintings by Philip Koch).

Saginaw Art Museum, Saginaw, MI solo exhibition, 1996
Washington County Museum of Fine Arts, Hagerstown, MD, solo exhibition, 1995
Butler Institute of American Art, Salem, OH, solo exhibition, 1995
Midwest Museum of American Art, Elkhart, IN , solo exhibition, 1995
Cedar Rapids Museum of Art, Cedar Rapids, IA, solo exhibition 1994
Payne Gallery, Moravian College, Bethlehem, PA, solo exhibition 1990.

Art Museum Permanent Collections: 
Butler Institute of American Art, Youngstown, OH; Blanden Memorial Art Museum, Fort Dodge, IA; Cape Cod Museum of Art, Dennis, MA; Cedar Rapids Museum of Art, Cedar Rapids, IA; Midwest Museum of American Art, Elkhart, IN; Indiana University Art Museum, Bloomington, IN;  Payne Gallery, Moravian College, Bethlehem, PA; Saginaw Art Museum, Saginaw, MI; Swope Art Museum, Terre Haute, IN; University of Maryland University College, Maryland Artists Collection, Adelphi, MD; Washington County Museum of Fine Arts, Hagerstown, MD.

Sources:
Unbroken Thread: Nature Painting and the American Imagination, the Landscapes of Philip Koch. Essay by Eva Allen, Ph.D. Exhibition catalogue published May, 2008 by the University of Maryland University College, Adelphi, MD
Feature article on Philip Koch's Landscapes, Fine Art Connoisseur Magazine, March-April 2008 issue.

A Vision of Nature: The Landscapes of Philip Koch, Essay by Eva Allen, Ph.D., exhibition catalogue published 2004 by University of Maryland University College, Adelphi, MD

Edward Hopper and the American Imagination, Whitney Museum of American Art, cited in essay by Gail Levin p. 115, Norton, NY, NY
"On Painting in Edward Hopper's Studio",  cover article, Oberlin Alumni Magazine, Spring 1995, Oberlin College, Oberlin, OH
"Direct Painting Outdoors", article by Philip Koch, American Artist Magazine, July 1982

Submitted by the artist.