Review of landscape paintings

Most appeal:  two favourite paintings (and which I think are most successful) from this assignment are the aerial perspective painting of Langdon Hills and the Hard Landscape of Bow Lane. 

The painting of Langdon Hills appeals because of its simplicity and the atmosphere of the piece.  The painting was completed with very limited information (basic sketch) and so I used my own colour to demonstrate the perspective and also a loose painting technique, rubbing the paint into the canvas to achieve a softer finish.  I feel the muted colours work well to catch the atmosphere of a dull winter’s day.  Comparing this to my other painting of Langdon Hills (soft landscape), I feel the sense of “place” is much stronger by being more simple.

The Bow Lane painting is the exact opposite – very busy with lots of bright colours in acrylic, applied heavily with large brushes.  This appeals to me because I feel it does capture the vibrancy and atmosphere of a busy London lane, showing the architecture and shop detail without being staid or fiddly.  Comparing this to the gridding up exercise (Bath), which I colour matched more closely to the original image, I think the Bow Lane painting just has so much more life and vitality.

The most successful sketch is the mixed media sketch of Fleet Street (fineliner, oil pastel and watercolour) which, sadly, was not replicated in the final piece.  Using the oil pastel as a resist medium with the watercolour added interesting texture and colour, while the fineliner added the sketchy details.

We are asked to consider those landscape painters we admire and how they have influenced us.  There are not actually that many landscape painters I admire; it is not particularly a genre I am drawn to but I would refer to the following who I feel have influenced me in some way:

Van Gogh – for his use of bright and often unnatural colours to make the most atmospheric landscapes.

The Camden Town Painters – their desire to paint what was around then, whatever that may be, including the darker side of our cities and the suburban.

Edward Hopper – the way he creates an atmosphere of isolation in cities.

Hashim Akib – using the techniques of large brushes loaded with paint for cityscapes.

Jock McFadyen – painting the run down side of the British landscape.