Gunderson Plein Air 2012- Samuel Morse Estate

This is a video with impressions of this last Sunday's plein air  (peinture sur le motif ) class at the Samuel F.B. Morse estate "Locust Grove" in Poughkeepsie, New York. From Sunday's class...it's all about MASSING- only way you can really see the vortex. Piecing together the mosaic of a three dimensional ball of light against an atmosphereic progression seems ludicrious-a waste of time as it's easier to squint down , hold on to the masses, let brush pressure calibrate the changes of value and tone.

Our Lady of Mt.Carmel Church

In 1910, Our Lady of Mt. Carmel church on opened on what is now Mt. Carmel Place. Nearly 60 years later, the congregation moved into the former St. Peter’s Church at 97 Mill Street. The Area has been home to many of Poughkeepsie's new immigrant populations, starting with the Irish, later the Italians. Still home to several Italian restaurants and bakeries, the area is widely referred to as Poughkeepsie's Little Italy. Every year in June Our Lady of Mt. Carmel Parish host's the St. Anthony's Street Festival.

Mural commision for Our Lady of Mount Carmel in Poughkeepsie

On January 17th, 2010, Bishop Dennis Sullivan, Vicar General of the New York Archdiocese, presided over the mass to commemorate the centennial of Our Lady of Mount Carmel Church and to bless the newly installed altarpiece painting of the Crucifixion, commissioned by Reverend Fr. Peter Kihm and the parish, to replace the lost original altarpiece painting that existed at the Old Mt. Carmel Church. Conceived and painted by local artist and teacher, Keith Gunderson, this grand undertaking required a year of study and execution to complete. Measuring almost 25’ in height and width, the iconic image of the Passion at Calvary contains 17 life sized figures and is complemented by the beautiful restoration of the interior, sumptuous marbled columns and striking ceiling details, newly gilded and painted. The entire effect evokes the magnificence of baroque churches of Italy, which had sent its sons and daughters to this enclave of Poughkeepsie for over a hundred years and has created for this parish a link to its heritage.
Keith Gunderson’s work encompasses all subject matter from figurative murals to landscape, portraiture and still life. He has studied painting and drawing with many notable painters in Chicago, Pasadena. Florida, and New York. His work is reminiscent of the romantic realists, with its facile brushwork, sureness of drawing, and emphasis on the psychological aspects of light and mood.
Mr. Gunderson currently teaches popular classes in Plein-Aire Painting, Still Life Painting and Artistic Anatomy at the Barrett Art Center in Poughkeepsie and at the Woods

Poughkeepsie View

Painted this scene from Poughkeepsie of a view toward the Hudson for the Millbrook Paint-Out. Beautiful old civil war era buildings frame the foreground with the Old Railroad bridge on the right.