"Indoors Outdoors"
September 17-October 25, 2025
In the Community Hall
"Indoors Outdoors" features alla prima oil paintings from the north country, created by Dan Mackerman.
“The show title comes from my method of art making. I tend to describe myself as a studio painter. But I have developed my sense for color, space, and atmosphere from working outside for many years. A camera is no replacement for the human eye and nuances must be seen in real life, not from a photo. Each time I work outside, my visual vocabulary grows. I still use photographs in the studio, but my visual memory allows me to include or edit what the camera can’t capture. Photographs for me are not definitive. At best, they are only hints or suggestions.
My preferred medium is oil, and my preferred method of painting at the moment is commonly referred to as “alla prima.” Basically, alla prima means applying layers of paint on top of already wet layers of paint. “Wet on wet,” as it’s often referred to, makes mixing layers possible to create new color effects. A particular feature of alla prima is the virtuosic brushwork, made possible when the canvas is wet with an initial coat of paint. As artist John Singer Sargent once said, “the thicker you paint, the more it flows." —Dan Mackerman
About Dan Mackerman
Dan Mackerman has been painting for over four decades. Through those years, his approach has changed from believing that an artist's measure was in their ability to execute ideas perfectly, to almost the opposite. Now he sees making paintings as a journey that leads to unexpected places, and he prefers not to know where each painting will go. He sees meeting his own expectations as boring, where a reckless beginning allows for serendipity, which he jokingly calls “chaos painting.”
He has been a fixture of the Twin Cities art scene for over thirty years. Highlights of his career include projects with The Smithsonian Institute National Building Museum, the Phipps Center for the Arts, Disney, Animal Planet, Paisley Park Studio, and more. His work is featured in 74 public collections and has also been featured in several media outlets, including Fine Art Connoisseur Magazine, Plein Air Magazine, Town Life Magazine, Minnesota Star Tribune, Pioneer Press, and Midwest Home Magazine to name a few. He has received grants and awards in juried competitions throughout the years, most recently a 2019 Artist Initiative Grant and a 2021 Creative Support for Individuals Grant. Both from the Minnesota State Arts Board.