When doing a landscape painting, the process I use is as follows: I should say this is my way, it’s possibly not the “right” way, whatever that is.
landscape painting
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- The J. Paul Getty Museum – Brief History of the Landscape Genre
- Art is Fun – Landscape Painting and Drawing
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Written by
Naomi Blumberg
Naomi Blumberg was Assistant Editor, Arts and Culture for Encyclopaedia Britannica. She covered topics related to art history, architecture, theatre, dance, literature, and music.
Naomi Blumberg
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Last Updated: Oct 20, 2023 • Article History
Table of Contents
van de Velde, Adriaen: River Landscape in the Late Afternoon
Category: Arts & Culture
Related Topics: painting mood landscape ideal-landscape painting landscape . (Show more)
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Oct. 20, 2023, 1:22 PM ET (AP)
landscape painting, the depiction of natural scenery in art. Landscape paintings may capture mountains, valleys, bodies of water, fields, forests, and coasts and may or may not include man-made structures as well as people. Although paintings from the earliest ancient and Classical periods included natural scenic elements, landscape as an independent genre did not emerge in the Western tradition until the Renaissance in the 16th century. In the Eastern tradition, the genre can be traced back to 4th-century- ce China.
The following article treats only the Western tradition. For further information on other landscape painting traditions, search by country or region—e.g., Chinese painting, Japanese art, South Asian arts: Visual arts.
Landscape painting in the 16th, 17th, and 18th centuries
Though landscape painting was still not a genre in its own right and was considered low in the art academy’s rigid hierarchy of subject matter, background landscapes became increasingly detailed in compositions that emerged in Venice in the late 15th century. Landscapes were notable in works by Giovanni Bellini (The Agony in the Garden, c. 1465; Saint Jerome Reading in a Landscape, c. 1480–85) and, slightly later, in those by Giorgione (The Tempest, c. 1505; Adoration of the Shepherds, 1505/10). By the mid-16th century, artists in northern Europe—particularly those of the Danube school, such as Joachim Patinir and Albrecht Altdorfer—were creating paintings which, though often populated with biblical figures, truly celebrated the beauty of nature in its own right. Later in the 16th century, Flemish artist Pieter Bruegel the Elder became a master landscape painter, specializing in colourful, highly detailed scenic views (Landscape with the Fall of Icarus, c. 1558; Hunters in the Snow, 1565; The Harvesters, 1565).
The 17th century ushered in the classical, or ideal, landscape, which set scenes in the mythic and idyllic Arcadia of ancient Greece. The leading practitioners of the classical landscape were the French-born Italy-based artists Nicolas Poussin and Claude Lorrain. With their idyllic scenes and classically ordered, harmonious compositions, Poussin and Claude attempted to elevate the reputation of the landscape genre in a variety of ways: by attaching metaphorical meaning to the natural elements of their paintings, by depicting mythological or biblical stories set in elaborate natural settings, and by emphasizing the heroic power of nature over humanity.
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The other prominent landscape tradition of the 17th century emerged from the Netherlands in the work of Dutch artists Jacob van Ruisdael, Aelbert Cuyp, and Meindert Hobbema. The sky, often ominously cloudy and filling half or more of the canvas, played a central role in setting the tone of a scene. The Dutch artists of that period infused the elements of their compositions with metaphorical meaning and made use of the visual impact of small figures in a vast landscape to express ideas on humanity and its relationship to almighty nature.
The centre of landscape painting during the 18th-century Rococo period shifted from Italy and the Netherlands to England and France. French painters Antoine Watteau, Jean-Honoré Fragonard, and François Boucher developed lyrical and romantic outdoor scenes that, with precise detail and delicate colouring, glorified nature. Their lighthearted landscapes—called fêtes galantes—were decorative vignettes filled with beautifully dressed men and women enjoying outdoor amusements and leisure time. The English Rococo landscape tradition was led by Richard Wilson, who painted in Italy as well as in his native England. His best-known painting, Snowdon from Llyn Nantlle (c. 1765), which shows a group of three people fishing at a lake framed by mountains, exemplifies his serene style. Other English landscape painters of note include Thomas Girtin, John Robert Cozens, and Thomas Gainsborough (who was also well known for his portraiture).
Choosing Your Image
I spend hours looking at the world, taking photos and making sketches. Choosing an image to paint is half the fun!
Get out there in the world and take some notes about what lights you up.
What lights you up is what you should paint.
The only advice I offer is that in the early stages, you should try to choose images that are reasonably simple. A complicated image will crush your will to live. (Or at the very least have you chucking a tanty. Um….hang on, maybe that’s just me).
Roughing In
In this case, we have used Napthol Red Light as a ground. Start by blocking in darks. You may wish to consider blocking in your darks with an unexpected colour such as Dioxazine Purple.
If you’re not comfortable with going straight to paint, you can mark your painting out in chalk first.
You can “warm up” or “cool down” a painting with the colours you use in your underpainting. Flashes of that colour will appear, making your landscape painting more lively and interesting.
The important thing though, is that you lay out your structure. Horizon here, trees there, hill over there, creepy toothless farmer behind shrubbery, etc.
This is a great way of “balancing” all of the elements at a very early stage, so changes can be made if necessary.
This leads us to composition. There are lots and lots of rules regarding composition. When you find out what they are, please let me know!
Seriously now, essentially they are using the elements so that there are no “empty” spots in the painting.
You can “balance” a painting by adding forms (structure) or movement (direction of objects for example).
As an example, a person looking towards the centre of the painting can lead your eye in that direction.
You can also use tone to balance a painting. I recently painted a large headland in a panoramic format. This large block of tone sat fairly heavily on the right hand side. I needed an element to counterbalance that. Rather than using darkness, I used a very bright sunrise to create interest and attention on the far left. Voila. Sorted.
Think a bit creatively about solving compositional problems. A very basic format for a balanced composition is this example of the “square rule”, which involves placing your prominent or significant compositional object along a line that roughly breaks your painting into a square and a rectangle:
Ultimately though, rules are made to be broken. And breaking the rules can sometimes help you say what you want to say with more power.
Creating an “unbalanced” composition can make viewing a painting slightly uncomfortable. Handy, if that’s your goal.
Once you’ve blocked in darks, it’s often handy to work out your lights. In other words, find a large area of the palest colour, and block that in (for example the sky). This will give you your two tonal extremes.
After this point I block in all the “intermediate” colours such as highlights on trees, large grassy areas, blocking in rocks and working from dark to light.
There are several reasons for approaching your landscape painting in this way:
- It is a great opportunity to check the composition, and see if all of the structure, and the tones within the piece are balanced. It’s not too late to move things around.
- Imagine you’re firing a rifle. The first shot misses. But it’s close – so you adjust your sights. Think of your landscape painting in the same way. The roughing in process is your first shot.
Every layer after this is adjusting. Acrylics on white canvas can often be quite transparent. A second coat is a good idea for building “strength” in your darks.
Never be afraid to build layers on top of one another. It will all add to the interest.
PS. Every time you paint, you improve your brush skills!
Intermediate Stage
At this point I re-establish the sky. Often the sky is a large area requiring some subtle shifts in hue and tone. For me, I want to focus purely on that and not worry about overpainting something. I get the sky as close to finished as possible, knowing that I’ll probably have to touch up some parts later. Now we move on.
Because your darks are now quite solid, you have something to build on. Start looking at the “intermediate” colours and tones in relation to the darks. See if you can isolate the next dark colour (slightly lighter than the darkest dark).
As examples, look at the trees and see if you can find the next “lightest” colour. And paint it!
Apply the same principle to everything else within that “dark” tonal range, for example, grass, rocks, cows, creepy dudes, etc.
At this point you can still apply highlights. BUT. The approach is “tighter” than the roughing in process. In other words, you are putting gradually more detail into your landscape painting, allowing it to evolve in layers.
This will eventually give your painting much more life and dimension.
Now is the time to start really using the nuances of your paintbrush. The amount of pressure you apply, the amount of pigment you apply, and how deftly you use your brush – all of these things are becoming much more important.
Time to understand your paintbrushes people! The better you understand your paintbrush, the happier you will be with this stage of your landscape painting.
