At The Landscape Atelier we put a lot of emphasis on art history, both as a teaching tool (always a good idea to study the Masters!) and so that as artists we can more completely understand and appreciate the rich tradition of landscape painting we have inherited. In that spirit, I think it’s time to […]
Working From Memory
… the use of memory, the perfection of memory to render specific qualities of light was considered both a practical skill … and a necessary discipline of the professional artist. David Cleveland, History of American Tonalism Although working from memory was once a necessary discipline for the landscape artist, this has not been the case […]
Visual Thinking
Recently a friend of mine who is a writer said to me “writing is thinking.” What she meant is that as we write we often discover the internal structure of what was previously a collection of random ideas and as a result locate the real intention of our work through the act of doing it. The […]
Why Draw?
Why Draw? Often landscape painters don’t think drawing is important. I am always amazed in my workshops and classes at the number of students who do not regularly use a sketchbook or include drawing as part of their art making process. I was fortunate that the first artist I seriously studied with- Ned Jacob- […]
Go First To Nature
Spring will soon be here and the plein air season will stretch out before us with tantalizing visions of days spent in the field painting nature. Unfortunately for many, the reality never quite matches up to our hopes and expectations. We come home tired, frustrated and disappointed in the day’s efforts. Why? Because painting outdoors […]
Where To Look for Shifts in Color Temperature
So, now we know that color temperature is an important attribute of color, and that seeing and painting those shifts will add quality to our paintings. But, where do we look for them? Over the many years that I studied with Ned Jacob, he rarely answered my questions directly. Usually, he would say enigmatic things […]