Portraits v. Landscape v. Still Life?

[Allan Rahbek]

I believe it

[Linda Nelson]

It's funny how so many of us suffer from the same affliction! I have always struggled with landscapes. I've always thought I suck at them (sorry for the bad language, but it's basically the right description). Well this winter I took some time off from the portraiture stuff, and tried my hand at "fine art". I did figuratives/landscapes. I find I really like doing landscapes as long as someones in the painting. It's like, for me, when there's just trees I don't have a subject to focus the painting around. But I tried a true landscape and did think it went well. So I showed all of it to some galleries, and they are carrying the work!

it inspired me to start a second website with the work -
www.LindaNelsonStudios.com

And then one connected me with Winn Devon Artist Publishing, and they actually like the landscape I did enough to ask me to submit a series of landscapes for their latest audition. I did 8 paintings in 2 weeks. It was exhausting, but I learned alot about what kind of landscape artist I want to be. It was exhilarating.

I won't hear til July about whether they like it enough to offer me a contract, but I'll be thankful either way that I had the experience.

So I got even more gutsy and landed some appointments to show my artwork to some major corporations. Medtronic bought a giclee, and Fair Issac actually commissioned me for a 4 x 6 foot landscape.

Unbelievable beginners' luck.

I also through this discovered Richard Schmid's work all over again. I ordered all his instructional stuff and am really impressed. I haven't had a chance to apply anything, but he really is a great landscape ans still life artist.

[Mikael Melbye]

Love the Sunflowers,
That's the looseness I'm talking about...super!

You must have done them a while ago though, I know the weather is lousy in Denmark at the moment.

Best of greetings from

Mikael

[Allan Rahbek]

Dear Mikael,
How nice to hear that the sun shines somewhere......but no problem....... the rain is a splendid excuse for me to stay home and paint. The sun has shone in my heart to day.

My best "looseness" shot is to consider the negative shapes as important as the positive.

Many painters seams to concentrate only on the positive....the thing....and pay no attention to the rest. That way the head, house, tree or what ever the motive is, will be isolated and be a closed form with nothing around it.

To make a painting loose you have to make the transitions between the forms as open as possible, so that your eye and mind can drift around and find equal pleasures in looking at the shadow of a cloud or the tower of the church.

In a painting every stroke has equal importance because they add to the whole.

As you see in my sunflowers( sorry, but they were at hand) I have painted the shapes from the outside as much as the flowers shapes itself, if you understand.

Another advice is to paint it all with the same two colors, try

Best of luck, Allan

[Mikael Melbye]

-yes, I see your point with the negative spaces. However, in motives where you want a specific item to stand out, you must put emphasis on this item somehow. Richard Schmid for instance will be extremely loose for most of the painting, and then a single person is painted meticulously accurate. This always intrigued me. I think my main worry is to loose my way if I'm not careful (and it often turns out to be too careful).

The thing about two colors - could you elaborate a little on what you mean. Are we talking "monochrome" or "grisaie"?

All the best

Mikael

[Allan Rahbek]

Dear Mikael,
"There

[Allan Rahbek]

[QUOTE=Mikael MelbyeThe thing about two colors - could you elaborate a little on what you mean. Mikael[/QUOTE]

Dear Mikael,
I found a good illustration on the use of two colors in this painting by Corot.
His "Bridge at Narni" shows that he used Ochers and Blue for most of the picture. The greens in the trees are probably also made from those basic pigments.

Note also the great importance of the values.

The other painting is from Rome. How would that motive look now ?

Best Allan

[Alexandra Tyng]

Hmmm, what an interesting thread. I just joined the forum and I'm still exploring all the sections. This topic struck me because I'm one of the minority who is a portrait and landscape painter, but not a still life painter.

I don't like to keep doing the same thing over and over again. I hate routines. For me, going back and forth between portraits and landscapes is refreshing, liberating, and joyful. Portraits take a lot more concentration and focus, especially when one is getting the likeness just right. So after all that intensity I just have to break out and do an expansive, fun painting. I enjoy painting land forms, water, trees, architecture, clouds, the works. I've been flying in helicopters and single-engine planes to take reference photos for very large (36 x 64 sometimes) aerial views of the Philadelphia cityscape and landscapes of the Maine coast and islands. Painting these aerial views keeps me busy all winter. Between the portraits, of course!

As for still life, I realized that I often incorporate still life into portraits. In fact, I get fired up about painting flowers or porcelain or glass or whatever when it is part of a composition. It's just that I, personally, find painting just a still life boring. No offense to the majority here who do enjoy it. I love looking at still life paintings, I just don't like to paint them.

Thanks to the person who started this topic. I never stopped to think about it before.

Alex

[Mikael Melbye]

Originally Posted by Allan Rahbek

Dear Mikael,
I found a good illustration on the use of two colors in this painting by Corot.
His "Bridge at Narni" shows that he used Ochers and Blue for most of the picture. The greens in the trees are probably also made from those basic pigments.

Note also the great importance of the values.

The other painting is from Rome. How would that motive look now ?

Best Allan

You dog you! Making me post my lousy landscape next to a Corot.

Anyway, your angle certainly gave me a push in the right direction, so thanks for that. Even before I saw the Corot's, I thought a lot on what you said with the two colors, and actually went back a lot to the subject without colors and easel, just to sit and see. The first day I was up there, the weather was extremely clear, and there was no aerial perspective at all, but the day after your last comment there was, and here is the result with a lot of yellow ochre and cerulean blue mixed with ultramarine violet that really made the ochre sing.

Something else happened which I have to share with you: I got an exhibition in a very prestigious gallery in Rome in September!

Now, if that is not great news, I don't know.

All the best

Mikael

[Michele Rushworth]

Congrtatulations on your upcoming gallery show in Rome. Wish I could be there to see it!