The History of Landscape Painting - 2nd Session

The History of Landscape Painting

Trying to internalize the world we live in is an age-old discipline, one practiced by most artists throughout history, everywhere.

It is also exceedingly and frustratingly difficult to crowd a dimensional perspective, illuminated by pure light and owning a total sensory experience, into a little flat limited panel using only dull pigment. But some glorious work has been made in these attempts, from Roman murals to the Hudson River school, to vast Japanese inks magically containing the essence of nature in all its mysteries and grandeur by simply manipulating inks.

In 18th century France all the way to post-Impressionism and the 19th century artists have made masterful explorations, such as the Fauve and the humble little watercolors of the 20th century. Even smaller still were the miniatures of Iran and India, Turner and Constable, Morandi and Gouguin,

The watercolors of Sargent and Pendergast, the abstractions of Kandinsky and Miro, and thousands more, were miraculous, like those of Innes and Hopper. When we look at Van Gogh and Monet  we smile with recognition of a miracle.

These works, intimating limitless space, the smell of air, ever changing atmospheres and the lights of night and day, make mountains and valleys, oceans and forests do a continuous dance that we find of hypnotic interest.

In painting it, we make it who we are, and in doing so we welcome its spirit and sense of wonder. The lessons that landscapes offer are amazing realizations of form, color, growth and motion. These are all things with which we are familiar, but have never been realized in their complexity and timber of existence until we paint them, till we observe, discover, arrange and re-create it ourselves. All goes through us, judged by our experiences and sentiments, to be transformed into a painting that tells us how we see.

In this class we will explore these themes, artists, and miraculous images.

This is a 6 week series on Monday  evenings from July 10 through August 14.  The links for each session are emailed to participants on the day of the lecture and the recorded sessions are available for review as well.