The Secret to Painting Realistic Landscapes

 

Painting landscapes is the pictorial-artistic representation of the landscape. It traditionally encompasses scenarios of nature, whether it includes vegetation, mountains, lakes, seas, or rivers, among other things. It can also include cities and towns, or elements thereof. It can even be completely in the center of a town. The very act of landscape painting is an intellectually complex activity. Painting a very good landscape requires a deep analysis of the optical aspect of what it means to see a landscape. It is necessary to reflect on how light acts physically on it and to think about how to use painting materials to represent it. Bellow, Brooklyn-based landscape artist Albert Serino shares some of his tips on how to paint realistic landscapes.

Painting landscapes and the pictorial tradition

As painter Albert Serino explains, there are several specific ways of representing landscape painting, according to each pictorial tradition. In the West, the landscape is generally produced in horizontal "landscape" formats. They usually show the sky and contain a horizon line. Climate is usually portrayed as an integral part of the landscape, this being one more element of the forces of nature.

However, there are other traditions in which the landscape is approached in a different way, as in Chinese painting, for example. For the Chinese there are many other formats in which the landscape is approached, apart from the horizontal ones. And not only that, because the views of the landscapes themselves can vary in representation, regardless of the format. Some of his landscapes are synthetic, others complex and intricate, and the way they are read traditionally varies according to each format.

What do we observe when we see a landscape?

The complexity of landscape painting is not only cultural or philosophical. In practical terms, landscape painting has a high degree of difficulty. Not only is it enough to produce the sensation of distance within the landscape, it is also necessary to express the climate and the temperature of the environment through color. Added to this are the common problems of figurative painting, chiaroscuro, the use of color, the use of material and the palette, among other details.

To solve some of these problems that landscape painting presents us, we must ask ourselves what we see when we look at a landscape. It is necessary to ask what our eyes see when they see a landscape and how light enters them when we see a landscape. How does light physically travel within the landscape? What elements make up a landscape, and so on.

How does this translate to painting?

Many painters have analyzed, discovered, rediscovered and used this knowledge in their paintings. The impressionist painters were great students of color, light and landscape. They had the privilege of working at a time when scientific color theory and knowledge of ancient painting coexisted.

However, these types of observations were made by artists from earlier times, even medieval times. It had already been reflected on how elements of nature interact with each other with the atmosphere. Transforming the nuance of its colors, the definition of its forms, its shades of gray and the whiteness that can be perceived in them. This knowledge has been a tool that great painters of many eras have taken advantage of. While it is true that mastering it can involve a high degree of difficulty, it is a wonderful addition to a painter's palette of resources.

If you are interested in learning other secrets about how to paint landscapes, make sure you check out Albert Serino’s blog, where he regularly publishes new, exciting tips.