LANDSCAPE+PAINTING

LANDSCAPE PAINTING assignments in this unit include: A STUDY OF TREES in a forest using a pair of complementary colors and white. One study in pastel, one study in acrylic paint. Main objective - to create the illusion of space on a 2D surface by adjustments in value(degree of light/dark) and chroma (brightness and purity of a color). By adding some of the complementary color you will be able to create more natural colors and neutral grays/browns. The addition of white will create a lighter value where desired. One NATURALISTIC LANDSCAPE painting based on a photograph or combination of photographs in acrylic. Option: An IMPRESSIONIST OR EXPRESSIONIST landscape acrylic painting based on the same photo(s) using brighter, more expressive colors. Main objectives:
 * to create the illusion of space on a 2D surface
 * to modulate colors to achieve a naturallistic effect
 * to convey depth through changes in color, value, size and texture
 * devise ways to convey a feeling or mood.

Begin with a pencil sketch showing the abstract pattern of darks, lights and midtones based on your scene or photo. (no details) Adjust the composition - crop, or move masses to create an a-symmetrical composition. Adjust relative sizes of the shapes and determine leading lines or shapes that lead the viewer //through// the composition and //not out// of the picture.

Following your adjusted sketch, on canvas or heavy watercolor paper, lay in a monochromatic underpainting of abstract masses. Dilute paint with water to create light, dark, midtone variations of the color.

Begin painting over the underpainting with actual colors, mixed with complements to create naturalistic coloration. Paint large masses first, no detail.

Begin painting the darkest areas, then the midtones. Save the lights for last.

Be conscious of brushstroke. This painting should not be flat as in a graphic illustration, but expressive. Use strokes that suit the scene or texture of the area/object that you are painting, Look at the examples on the Wiki, Landscape page.

Hand in your photo and sketch with your finished painting by 6.14. (2012 Final exam project)

GRADING RUBRIC  IMPRESSIONIST PAINTINGS   [|MONET PAINTINGS] NOTE INDIVIDUAL BRUSH STROKES AND CONTRASTING COLORS POST IMPRESSIONIST PAINTING - PAUL CEZANNE EXPRESSIONIST/SYMBOLIST PAINTING - VINCENT VAN GOGH ROMANTIC SCHOOL OF LANDSCAPE PAINTING- EARLY TO MID 19TH CENTURY, PRECURSORS TO IMPRESSIONISTS In this unit, we will focus on ways artists achieve verisimilitude (naturalism) in their paintings. You will create several studies in which you will apply these techniques and concepts. In order to convey a sense of depth and naturalistic appearance in __Mona Lisa__, Leonardo used several techniques. For example: The background landscape in Leonardo's Mona Lisa is a good example of //Aerial Perspective://
 * The colors in the painting are naturalistic-the purity or "chroma" of each color is somewhat subdued by the admixture of the color's complement in varying proportions. You experienced this for yourselves in making the forest studies.
 * The use of warm colors (browns) in the foreground and cool, lighter colors in the background.
 * Softer hazier edges of objects in the background contrasting with more detail and clearly delineated shape of the figure in the foreground

Aerial Perspective - a method of creating the illusion of distance by representing objects farther away with less clarity of contour and diminished color. (Brommer) What other techniques, that you have learned and applied earlier in the course, did Da Vinci use in Mona Lisa to create a naturalistic effect? In Art I you learned to use //Linear Perpective//, a system of drawing or painting developed to convey the illusion of depth on a flat surface. All parallel lines receding into the distance are drawin to one or more imaginary vanishing point on the horizon line, as in the painting below, The Last Supper, by Leonardo Da Vinci. There are many styles and approaches to landscape painting. We will look at a mid-19th century American movement called the [|HUDSON RIVER SCHOOL] This was not an actual //school// but a group of painters interested in depicting the natural rugged beauty and vastness of the American wilderness just at the time when settlement and technological advances began to alter much of the land along the Hudson River and in the western states and territories. The paintings of this group embody the belief that nature in the form of the American landscape was an ineffable manifestation of god, reflecting the ideas of Trancendentalist writers/philosophers such as Emerson and Thoreau. The paintings of the far west and South American landscapes also reflect the contemporary belief in Manifest Destiny which formed the basis of the expansionist platform. See link below. [|MAINFEST DESTINY] The Hudson River School painters were influenced by European Romaniticism, a movement which encompassed several disciplines including painting, poetry, and, characterized by the use of expressive means to convey strong emotion and interest in depicting dramatic events. [|ROMANTICISM] Two English landscape painters of the Romantic movement whose style influenced the Hudson River School painters are John Constable and Joseph Mallord William Turner, whose late almost abstract style was to influence the French Impressionists later in the century:

John Constable was among the first painters to paint outdoors. He made many quick studies on paper, including famous studies of clouds, and tried to match, as closely as possible, colors in nature. He was the first artist to paint water and the effects of light with "sparkling clarity" (Brommer, __Discovering Art History. p. 394)__ by adding touches of white to the canvas, a technique critics and public hitherto had not encountered in a painting. Below is a painting by the founder of the Hudson River School, Thomas Cole, in which he contrasts untamed wilderness on the left with cultivated land ("civilization") on the right. This is a common theme protrayed in much of the work produced by this movement. The second generation of Hudson River School painters travelled to the far west and to South America for their subjects. The huge paintings produced when back home in their studios offered the public a virtual tour of these scenic locations, at a time when travel was impractical for the average person.