Landscape Assignment

Due In two weeks: Oct. 31st

You are to make a landscape painting in oil that is at least 8x10 (that is: the short side may be no smaller than 8”, and the longer side may be no smaller than 10. You must make your own support.

This project is all about making space—or the illusion of it.  It’s also about controlling color relationships in terms of contrast and “chromatic hygiene” (high contrast advances low contrast recedes, and clean color advances and broken color recedes).

The subject may be of anything as long as it is (mostly) outside and includes close foreground and fairly deep space.  If you work outside from life (the preferred way of working for most landscape painters), you will find that the light will change--the sun tends to move if you hadn’t noticed--during the time you are working, so you have to paint quickly and plan to come back to the same spot at the same time for two or more days.  I’d suggest making either a sunny day painting or a cloudy day painting if you choose a daytime painting.  If you start a painting sunny and finish it cloudy you will drive yourself crazy and you’ll end up with a confusing result.  Trust me!

I strongly encourage you to choose a moment in your painting to be what the painting is about, and then make everything else in the painting merely support that moment.   Don’t just paint a scene.  Also, don’t make a “pretty” painting.  “Pretty” is bad. 

Hints

*Remember the different ways to create the illusion of space:

1-clean colors advance, and broken colors recede.

2-high contrast and hard edges advance, low contrast and soft edges         recede.

3-saturated colors advance, less intense colors recede

*Squint a lot.  This will force you to simplify. 

*Don’t forget your drawing skills.  Make sure your perspective works.

*Values tend to be very high outdoors.  The sun tends to eat away the darks and we find that they are relatively light (though still darker than the lights).  What at first glance seems like a value contrast might be more of an intensity contrast or temperature contrast.

*Research ideas from the old or contemporary masters—try to paint like them!

*Lastly, decide your approach BEFORE the painting begins, and stick to it (which of the four?)!