Gurney Journey: Eighteen Years of Daily Art Thinking from James Gurney

Gurney Journey is the personal blog of James Gurney, the painter, author, and creator of Dinotopia, and it has been publishing continuously since 2007. That is eighteen years of daily or near-daily posts covering plein air painting, colour science, art history, visual perception, painting technique, and the creative process, written by one of the most knowledgeable and intellectually curious painters working today. The archive that has accumulated over those eighteen years represents one of the richest free art education resources available anywhere on the internet.

James Gurney is best known to the general public as the creator of Dinotopia, the illustrated book series depicting a world where humans and dinosaurs coexist in a sophisticated civilisation. The paintings in the Dinotopia books are extraordinary achievements in imaginative realism, created with the same observational rigour and technical mastery that Gurney applies to plein air landscapes and figure studies. To the art education community, Gurney is equally known as the author of "Color and Light: A Guide for the Realist Painter" and "Imaginative Realism: How to Paint What Doesn't Exist", two books that have become standard references in art schools worldwide.

Gurney Journey brings together these two aspects of Gurney's identity: the working painter who goes out every day to paint from observation, and the intellectually curious thinker who investigates the science, history, and theory behind what he observes.

The Scientific Approach to Painting

The defining characteristic of Gurney Journey is its scientific approach to visual phenomena. Gurney does not simply describe how things look. He investigates why they look that way, drawing on physics, biology, psychology, and art history to explain the visual phenomena that painters observe and represent.

Posts on Gurney Journey have covered topics including the physics of light scattering in the atmosphere and its effect on colour in landscape painting, the biology of colour perception and how the human visual system processes colour information, the optics of reflected light and how it affects the colour of shadows, the mathematics of perspective and how it applies to specific painting situations, and the chemistry of pigments and how it affects the behaviour of paint.

This scientific depth is not academic abstraction. Every investigation connects directly to practical painting decisions. Understanding why the sky is blue and how the colour changes toward the horizon helps painters mix more accurate sky colours. Understanding how reflected light works helps painters paint convincing shadows. Understanding the biology of colour perception helps painters understand why certain colour combinations create specific visual effects.

Plein Air Painting Documentation

Gurney is one of the most accomplished plein air painters working today, and Gurney Journey documents his outdoor painting practice in exceptional detail. Posts regularly include photographs of the painting setup, the subject, and the finished painting, along with detailed commentary on the specific challenges of the session and how Gurney approached them.

This documentation of actual plein air practice is invaluable for artists who want to understand what professional plein air painting actually involves. Gurney does not present an idealised version of outdoor painting. He documents the real conditions, including difficult light, weather changes, time pressure, and the practical challenges of working outdoors, and explains how he responds to these conditions in his painting decisions.

The plein air content covers a wide range of locations and conditions, from urban street scenes to rural landscapes to coastal subjects, demonstrating how the same fundamental principles apply across different environments and lighting situations.

Art History and Museum Analysis

Gurney Journey includes a substantial body of art history content, covering historical paintings, artists, and techniques with the eye of a working painter who is interested in understanding how things were made rather than simply appreciating their aesthetic qualities. Posts analyse specific historical paintings in terms of their compositional structure, colour relationships, light and shadow patterns, and the specific techniques that created their effects.

The art history posts are particularly valuable because they approach historical paintings as practical resources rather than cultural monuments. Gurney's analysis of a Rembrandt portrait or a Sargent watercolour is focused on what the painter did and how, providing insights that are directly applicable to contemporary painting practice.

Museum visits are documented with the same analytical approach, with posts covering exhibitions and collections at major museums worldwide. These posts provide access to Gurney's trained eye and extensive knowledge for readers who cannot visit the museums in person, and they often include observations about specific works that would not be apparent to a less experienced viewer.

The Archive as Resource

The archive of Gurney Journey, spanning eighteen years and thousands of posts, is one of the most valuable free art education resources available online. The archive is searchable and covers an extraordinary range of topics, from specific painting techniques to broad questions about the nature of visual art.

Artists who spend time exploring the archive consistently report discovering material that is new to them and genuinely useful, regardless of their level of experience. The depth and breadth of the archive reflects eighteen years of daily intellectual engagement with painting and visual art, and the quality of the thinking is consistently high throughout.

The archive is organised chronologically and can be searched by keyword, making it possible to find posts on specific topics efficiently. For artists who want to understand a particular aspect of painting, colour, or art history, the Gurney Journey archive is often the most thorough and intellectually rigorous source available for free.

Connection to the YouTube Channel

Gurney Journey connects directly to James Gurney's YouTube channel, which provides video documentation of his plein air painting sessions and other artistic activities. The blog and YouTube channel complement each other, with the blog providing the written analysis and historical context that the videos do not always include, and the videos providing the visual documentation of process that written descriptions cannot fully convey.

Together, the blog and YouTube channel constitute one of the most comprehensive free art education resources available from a single working professional artist. The combination of daily written posts, video demonstrations, and the accumulated archive of eighteen years of intellectual engagement with painting makes Gurney's online presence genuinely exceptional.

The Bottom Line

Gurney Journey is one of the most intellectually rich and practically valuable art blogs ever created, offering eighteen years of daily posts covering plein air painting, colour science, art history, and the creative process from one of the most knowledgeable and curious painters working today. For artists who want to deepen their understanding of painting beyond technique, to engage with the science and history behind what they observe, and to benefit from the accumulated thinking of a master painter and author, Gurney Journey is an essential and irreplaceable resource.