LANDSCAPE PAINTINGS : THE PLAY OF LIGHTS

Most of the landscape paintings present an ordered view of the nature, the Mother Earth. These paintings depict idealized places bathed in golden light or of a countryside, which bears the pleasant marks of habitations.

Weizenfelder, THE FIELD -by Ruisdael

For a painter of any style, and especially for a landscape painter, the nature of light is the principal character. The light may be fiery and intense or pale and diffuse. Among others, the skill to capture the way in which the sun and the moon illuminate the subject is important. For a landscape painter, it is paramount to consider the light-factor properly, as the light gives value and refinement to the objects the artists is going to enliven on the canvass.

Landscape painter very often uses the factor of light and darkness to implant a rhythmic pattern along with a symbolic meaning. Thus these painters use light as the powerful tools while adding value to their pieces of art. Sun being the main source of light, it is symbolically shown as masculine force, filling the world with life-giving energy. Same sun may be depicted as scorching and destructive, too.

The Mill Wijk-bij-Duurstede -by Ruisdael

The power of images to entertain and even control the minds of the viewers is a well-recognized concept. A frame of landscape painting often conveys meanings beyond those that are immediately apparent. Painters have often used the subject of landscape painting to suggest the brevity of human life against the permanence of the natural world. We can measure the futility of human endeavour comparing the same against the self-renewing natural cycles.

Capturing the acts of weather has remained a favourite subject for many artists. Extreme effects of the weather can also be used to communicate inspiring messages. Sometimes the message might not be clearly spelt in the object of painting itself; but by the masterly treatment of the subject, the painters have succeeded in creating such effects in the observers’ responses on seeing the painting. Remaining truly faithful to their subject and the art, these landscape painters have responded in a variety of ways to the challenge of depicting weather and its illusive atmospheric effect. (Images courtesy Wikimedia commons)

Caspar David Friedrich (1774-1840) was a painter of Romantic landscapes. He painted the mountains and rivers of Germany with oil colours and allegory, as the allegory was his second language. His paintings depicted the various moods of nature; the night skies with subdued colours, the morning mist with bright colours, and sometimes the tree without leaves and ruined building creating the dramatic and allegorical effect in his landscape the paintings. READ FURTHER>>

The art of landscape paintings honours and celebrate the physical environment of the Mother Nature in a variety of ways. The idea of considering the countryside as a delightful and relaxing place of retreat from the chaos of the city is an old one. Rich with long pastoral areas, the mountains, rivers, lush green vegetations and the down-to-the earth people: these are the subjects that hold great importance for landscape painting. The landscape painters have painted such places turning them into the object of delights.

READ FURTHER>>