You would think that landscape painting would be somewhat easier than portrait/figure/still life because the subject matter lends itself to much more loose, abstract, and spontaneous brushwork, but that's not necessarily the case... at least for those of us that don't do much landscape painting. I first started out oil painting when I was a kid in early high school years doing Bob Rossian style landscapes. It was fun, and it taught me a little bit about how oils behave, and a very general approch to manipulating oils. And long story short, here I am today doing mostly portrait and figurative stuff. But when it comes to landscapes, I've gotten better, but I still haven't really completely advanced out of the whole Bob Rossy, happy treesy, poofy white cloudsy way of doing landscapes. It was all good and fun when I was a kid just starting out, but I'm far beyond that now and it's time to get real with landscapes. So here is what I have done so far. Each of these was about a 2-3 hour alla prima, and for the most part, lots of fun.
Road Trip oil on linen 16x20 inches 2013 |
Hey Hay oil on canvas 20x16 inches 2013 |
Mudscape oil on canvas 11x14 inches 2013 |
Mighty Oak oil on canvas 11x14 inches 2013 |
Hiking Trail oil on canvas 11x14 inches 2013 |
There's still much to work on, but not too bad. Don't get me wrong, I have not abandoned or quit doing portraits and figures by any means. The best is still yet to come on those. Like I said, this is just a little branching out (no pun intended) into painting not necessarily happy trees, but real ones.
More to come soon...