“Moody” LANDSCAPE PAINTING PROJECT Your task will be to create a dramatic landscape painting focusing on light and atmospheric effects.

Landscape defined… “Landscape” art is a term that covers the depiction of natural scenery such as mountains, valleys, trees, rivers, and forests. Sky is almost always included in the view, and weather is often an element of the composition. Danube landscape near Regensburg c. 1528

History of Landscapes Artists have painted landscapes for thousands of years. One of the earliest landscape comes from Rome around 50 B.C.

The Chinese have a rich tradition of landscape painting The Chinese have a rich tradition of landscape painting. This painting was done around 1000 A.D.

Here is another example of Chinese landscape from the 1500’s. A Fisher in Autumn, 1523 AD., China

Perhaps the greatest popular interest for landscapes was during the 1800’s. In America a group of artists called the “Hudson River School” took landscape painting to a new level. Albert Bierstadt, Storm in the Mountains, (1870)

In England Turner’s landscapes became very popular.

In Europe the Impressionist were also rediscovering “landscape” with a group called the “Impressionists” Claude Monet, Poppies Blooming, 1873

All over Europe artists started to consider the landscape as an important way to express themselves, not just as background for figure painting. Themistokles von Eckenbrecher (German, 1842–1921) ClaudeMonet (France, 1897)

Ivan Shishkin, Rain in an Oak Forest, 1891, Russia

Here are some local landscape artists: Frank Magleby

Robert Marshall

Stephen Bartholomew

Jim Jones

For this class we are going to focus on “moody” dramatic landscape: Dramatic weather (stormy, low clouds, fog, etc.) Dramatic Light effects (light peeping through clouds, sunlit mist, etc.) Dramatic settings or time of day (ex: moon over castle ruins, etc.)

For this project you will need some reference photos (subject matter as well as light effects). Your own photos are better!