Paintings of Coasts Guidance by Arteet™

The beautiful sceneries we have in our world make it imperative that some of them if not most are appreciated by making representations of them on canvas. Some earth forms are so beautiful that memories of them influence the state of our mood and emotions. The art of depicting the natural environment on canvas developed the genre of landscape painting.

Landscape painting is a genre of painting wherein the primary objective is representing the earth’s beautiful scenery on canvas. The earth’s landscape is made up of elements like the mountains, sea, plateaus, plains, deserts, rolling hills, canyons, valleys, cliffs, trees, forests, savannas, prairies, etc.

The History of landscape painting can be traced to the Chinese in the fourth century BCE. It was a recognised category of art then. In the west, landscape drawing started to evolve as a genre after the period of renaissance art. Then it was not a very popular option amongst the elites because it was viewed as being too simplistic and ordinary. It was not accorded a good level of academic attention, hence relegating it to the background. The teachers, elites and barons paid more attention to historical artworks, portraits and nude painting. Even when it was applied, it was as a background for other art works. It was only after the French revolution of the nineteenth century that landscape painting got the recognition it deserved.

An attempt at classifying landscape painting is indeed a very complex exercise. The most popular classification is based on a cultural concept. There exist the American landscapes, Russian, French, Dutch, Norwegian, English and many more. Each landscape painting is specific to various cultures. Some popular landscape painters are JMW Turner, Richard Wilson, Monet, El Greco, Thomas Cole and Frederick Edwin Church.

The inclination to indulge in landscape drawing is inspired by the captivating beauty of these landforms. While some landscape paintings try to be as realistic as possible others are surreal or abstract, few can be said to be futuristic. The methods applied by the painter depend to a great extent his mood or emotions at the time he was making the painting.

The advent of the photo camera is adversely affecting the interest in landscape paintings. As an artist the concept of control is very important. The level of control over a camera is limited, but the control over the fingers and the brain is limitless. Landscapes will be for eternity!