Landscape Paintings and Landscape artists

Presently, painting a landscape, Landscape artists like Daniel Edmondson act to preserve nature. As the world’s population increases the natural landscape is depleting. Landscape Paintings are still thriving even though the natural landscape is struggling, however the idea of a landscape is changing and morphing. A new thought of the landscape could be “urbanscapes” for now our world is growing much more urban quicker.

However painting “urbanscapes” seems to be less of a romantic or wild notion of our world, a less interesting notion because we are used to the “urbanscapes.” We trek through the urban much more than we do the natural. In order to paint nature and the natural landscape it requires of the artist, a keen sense of place. An artist must be in tune with nature, the details of nature, and the varying surroundings. Plein air painting requires the artist to pay attention to the natural studio, the sunlight, the balance, the color harmonies, the elements that aren’t typically intuitive when looking into nature which complicates the painting process greatly. The painter must see into the world and see the world still. The artist must freeze movement and time in place and watch for the water to calm or the leaves to settle. Distractions within nature must be blocked out for proper painting to be accomplished. Painting movement in a still form is a challenging task. The artist is in charge of what is to be seen and how to see it. Does the water move? Do the trees shake? Which part of the water is moving? The painter allows us into a moment and saves the moment in time. The landscape is pre-set, the artist does not control light or balance, but the painter must look into the landscape to determine what needs to be painted, which requires a certain talent. Landscape artists must rely upon the art of translation to carry the landscape onto the canvas via brushstrokes which requires a different language through sight. Painting nature contributes to a necessary medium of escapism. It is important for humans to imagine an escape in order to cope with daily struggles and stressors. Humans often times look towards nature to escape the day to day stressors and sometimes nature isn’t easily accessible. The painter escapes through painting and gives the gift of escapism to the viewers so that nature is always seemingly accessible, or close. It is up to the landscape painter to depict an emotion or mood across in order to impact its viewer and sometimes the emotion could be stress. Is the painting of a barren desert or an open meadow, or turbulent seas? Even if the painting poses a certain stress or threat, it is still self expression for the painter which is an emotional outlet that the viewer can clasp onto. If the viewer sees the outlet and clings onto that outlet, it brings the viewer into another state and world. A certain mystery and romance comes with landscapes. They seem to be infinite with the horizon roughed in the background, you know something exists further, but what? As a still life gives us a somewhat definitive end with the end of the table or the fallen fruits, the landscape painting will continue on and as the landscape continues on, the viewer will continue on within landscape paintings.