Landscape Painting

Impressionist Landscape Paintings

Students in our Art II course have been working with acrylic paints on canvas to create Impressionist Landscape Compositions. They have learned the process for the application of acrylics, working through their compositions from Background to Mid-ground, and lastly their Foreground. Students use long handle brushes and stand up easel to help remove the focus on detail and to instead focus on the impact of light shadow and how it creates form. As a class we discuss Van Gogh and other impressionist artists and their approaches and techniques.

This process has reinforced their understandings of the Elements of Art for Depth, Space, Texture, and Color (Tonal Values & Hue), as well as applying the Principles of Art; Movement, Balance, and Emphasis.

Students then create written reflections on their content and process.

The painting was inspired by a photograph of a field of lilacs with a massive tree stood right in the middle of everything; dimly lit by a setting sun. I chose this image because lilacs are my mother’s favorite flower, and the combination of the warm glow of the setting sun, the sturdy tree routed into the ground, and the familiar purple flowers reminded me of her effervescent spirit therefore inclining me toward choosing the image.
Van Gogh and the approach of impressionism impacted my painting style because the idea of using texture to convey emotion further improved the bond between my subject matter and my inspiration. The chaotic motion used while painting rapid strokes with large amounts of paint on brush was representative of the chaos and stress my mother faces everyday, while the overall painting feels warm and inviting; how my mother stays constantly- despite her busy lifestyle.
I did enjoy using stand up easels because it allowed me to physically step back from my canvas in order to analyze both the painting and the reference photo in order to improve my work as I progressed.
The most challenging part about painting was maintaining the technique of impressionism because it required a small relinquish of control. Because the painting meant a great deal to me, when I could not make everything exactly perfect I struggled to maintain faith that I could get my point across without any words at all. However, I think this was an important learning experience for me seeing as I am quite proud of how the painting came out in the end.
The most rewarding part of the painting was my teacher, Mrs. Lynch, asking if I would be finished in time to put the work in a show. While to some this may be quite common, I have never had my work in a show before. Because I see my teacher as not only a superb artist, but a fantastic role model this was incredibly rewarding to me, and made me feel a lot more confident in the painting as a whole.
Color mixing and matching was initially the most difficult part for me, I had a horrendous time attempting to mix the paint to the exact color I wanted it. However, as time went on, I became more confident in my ability to mix colors as I began to realize the patterns in the color wheel, as well as realized that perfection was not the goal as long as the feeling I wanted was warranted by whoever saw the painting.

By: Alice M.

My painting was inspired by a photograph of a river in front of mountains at sunset. The picture also included a beach and some people in canoes, but I decided to omit the people in order to retain a focus on the natural world in the work. Van Gogh and the approach of impressionism impacted my painting style because I painted, especially the sky, with short dashes of paint in order to capture the movement and colors of the image. This style of short lines also helped me when painting the water, allowing me to create the look of waves or ripples in the water.
I very much enjoyed the stand-up easels because I believe that they are the best way to paint with the short strokes and attention to movement necessary for impressionism. It also felt good to stand instead of sitting like we do in every other class. The most challenging part about the painting was capturing the movement of the sky and water, but the most rewarding part was being able to do this and replicate successfully the colors and movement found in the image. I also very much enjoyed painting the mountains and the trees on the beach because I believe that they came out very well. Color mixing and matching affected my painting because I needed to mix colors in order to get the correct color for the sand and for the trees. Without color mixing, my project would not have been as successful.

By: Nicholas B.

I chose this image because I liked how the flowers looked in the image. Van Gogh inspired me with the way I painted my grass, I tried to nt blend and make small to medium lines with many different shades of green. Yes the easels made it easier to paint from the angle it held the canvas board up at. The most challenging part as matching the colors, I made the grass a little bit brighter than it should be and the same with the purple flowers. The most rewarding part was finishing the painting and seeing the finished product. My painting was made brighter and more pigmented because I mixed the colors brighter than they should have been by accident.

By: Ashley H.

The inspiration of the photograph is that I wanted to have a photograph to be a little creative the mountains, trees and the house in the image. I chose the image because it reminds me of a quiet place that I want to be in to relax. Using Van Gogh’s ways he painted into my landscape, made it seem to be kinda fun to do, and a little bit easy. The most challenging part for my landscape in my opinion was painting the ground, trying to get it the right color/ how bright it would be. I enjoyed the stand up easels because I’m use to standing which was comfortable with me for this project. The color mixing for my painting made it look better than just making it look boring with one color for each detail on the painting.

By: Kyle B.

The photo that I used for my landscape painting was a picture of my uncles cranberry bogs. I chose this picture because I wanted to paint it for him to give it to him as a gift. Van Gogh’s style of painting allowed me to make the grass more realistic, and it allowed for me to make the clouds in the sky looking really real too. I wasn’t a fan of the stand up easels, and I preferred to paint with the canvas on the table. I would rather sit and be closer to the photo, and to the canvas because it allows me to look at it closer. Color mixing was a good technique to use because it helped to make the painting more like the real photo. The most challenging part of the painting was the cranberry bog because it took a lot of time to put each individual cranberry in. The cranberry bog was also the most rewarding part of the painting because once it was done I thought it looked really good.

By: Olivia B.

My inspiration photograph was of architecture in Tennessee that I took on my phone. I chose this photo because it was very old-fashioned and it was completely different than what everyone else was choosing. Van Gogh and the impressionistic style really made me go out of comfort zone by using the longer paintbrushes and layering paints with each other. I enjoyed the stand up easel because if I wanted to step back and look at my art, I could. The most challenging part about this project was the frustration that my painting was not going to look exactly like the photo. The most rewarding part was when I was done and got to look at what I made with my own style. Color mixing and matching was a tad frustrating trying to make the perfect match, but it was fun trying to figure what makes what.

By: Athena X.

I chose the photograph of the mountain, with red flowers because the simplicity stood out to me and I liked the contrast of the bright red against the light grey and dark green of the trees in the background. Van Gogh and the approach of impressionism impacted my painting style because I was inspired to follow his very unique almost stippling way of painting, where each brush stroke was visible and flowed with the image. The large variety of colors and perspective was interesting to me and I enjoyed painting in this art style. I felt like it was a very natural and free way of painting. I enjoyed using the stand up easels because I was able to reflect on my piece with the photograph and the long paint brushes made it easy to ignore my perfectionist qualities of art and kept me from getting too close to the painting and focusing on intricate details, but allowed me to focus on the impact of Van Gogh and the impressionist style of art. The most challenging part of the painting was getting the ridges of the mountain to look more realistic, and color matching. The color mixing and matching impacted my painting greatly, I had to mix the colors multiple times to get the shade that I needed to match to my painting each time I went to paint it. The most rewarding part of the painting was completing the mountain and getting the shape of the trees in the background to match the photograph. I thoroughly enjoyed this project, painting is one of my most favorite mediums and I liked using the longer paint brushes and the stand up easel as well.

By: Natalie R.

In my picture I decided to paint an image of Golden Lake. I chose this because my family and I go there on vacation every year. The impressionist style made me paint very differently than I usually would. The brush strokes were much less clean, and it became easier to see each stroke rather than one solid portion. I had no problem with the stand up easels, it didn’t really matter to me whether I was standing or sitting. The most challenging part was trying to add texture to the painting, and the most rewarding was finally getting things to be the right color. Color mixing was the thing I did most in my painting because there was a lot of open space, and it was hard to add texture.

By: Gabriel M.

My inspiration photograph was of a waterfall over the side of a cliff-like wall of rock. It seemed to be a secluded and peaceful area with stones and calm water. I chose it because I liked the homey feeling that the scene portrayed. I felt familiar and comforted upon seeing the image. I painted with a Van Gogh style, using impressionism, which is a style somewhat unfamiliar to me. I painted with quick strokes and I didn’t really use clean, defined borders around each object. I also used dots to paint the plants covering the wall behind the waterfall. As I painted with this style, I stood up rather than sitting. I liked it because it added to the feeling of freedom that is allowed in the style of impressionism. Standing allowed me not to focus too much on the intricate details and mistakes. One challenge that I faced was placing each object, like each rock for instance, in the right place. Even though the requirements weren’t to scale it perfectly, I had a hard time not focusing on that. The most rewarding part of it was when I painted the plants stretching over the rock wall. I think it really summed up the coziness that I wanted to portray through this feeling.

By: Emelia D.

I picked the photograph because I liked the yellow flowers and how peaceful it seemed. Van Gogh impacted my painting by I wanted you to feel like you could feel the wind and the flowers by giving them texture. I liked the stand up easel because I could see everything better and I liked standing up while painting. The most challenging was making the flower appear closer. The most rewarding part was seeing the finish product of it and how the flowers came out. I wanted to make the color match as close as possible.

By: Erinn C.

My inspiration photograph was an image of a beach in the day time. You could see the light water with the water foam. I choose the image because just looking at it made me relax. I loved the fact that the image was a peaceful setting. Painting with the style similar to the one of Van Gogh, impressionism, I decided to stray away and paint holding the brush with a light hand. I enjoyed stand up easels because it was easier to see the printed image above and go back to it whenever it was needed. The most challenging part of this project would have had to be the image having a lot of sand. In some spots the sand was smoother than others and a different shade so it was difficult to get that right. The most rewarding part was the finishing product and seeing how far that the painting had come. The color mixing/matching impacted my painting in a good way. I believe that the color matching was one of the more fun and easier parts of this project.

By: Kate B.

The inspiration photograph that I chose was a picture of a bridge in front of a multi-colored sunset. I chose this picture because of the sunset in the back. When I found this photo, the colors caught my eye. Impressionism and Van Gogh impacted my painting style because he uses strokes instead of solid painting. I did enjoy using the stand-up easels, it made holding the paintbrush further away from the canvas easier to paint on it. The only problem with using the easels is that it takes me a while to set it up. The most challenging part about this painting for me was blending the paint colors together to make the sunset looks realistic. The most rewarding part of this project was the final product. All of the effort and time that this painting took me, it feels good to have it come out how I wanted. Color mixing impacted my painting a lot. I had to match the colors to the ones in the picture because we did not have the colors I needed. The colors I mixed made the painting look better than the photograph.

By: Kelsey Pimentel

Jenna. R

My inspirational photograph was of a river in the forest. I chose this image because I love nature and the photo was filled with trees, rocks, plants, water, and sunlight. Van Gogh and the approach of impressionism impacted my painting style by forcing me to focus more on the light and movement in the image I am painting/drawing. The mixing and matching of colors using short strokes next to each other emphasized shapes and change in color/lighting.
The different aspects of this project compared to previous ones made it interesting and really enjoyable. I liked using the stand up easels because it was easier to look at the image really quick and paint. The image and painting were both at eye level rather than shifting your head back and forth between the two. Also the stand up easels allowed me to take a step back and focus on certain sections of the painting. The most challenging part about the painting was the trees because the shape of the trees did not come out great as the change in color and light was hard to get. The most rewarding part about the painting was being able to use a different style of painting and seeing how small dashes of different colors next to each other creating the image.

By: Colby B.

For my landscape project I choose to paint an area of marsh land. I’ve lived by the water my whole life and my family loves heading down to the marsh to look for shells or arrowhead, even in the freezing cold. I wanted to paint something for my parents and the marsh was one of the first things that came to mind. My other choice was of a winter forest since we live close to the woods, but it didn’t have much color. I attempted to use impressionism in my painting, mainly in the water (even though it doesn’t really look like water in some parts). I’m used to painting in long strokes but instead I tried to use short quick strokes and even dabbing the paintbrush on the canvas. I enjoyed using the easels, however mine would usually start to slide down or the pegs would get stuck. I’m just glad mine didn’t completely slam shut on me. The hardest part for me was putting together the didn’t pieces of the water, in my reference it would abruptly change from light blue to a purple then dark blue, I feel like it made my painting look a little confusing but I didn’t want to mess anything up by blending it together. It was tough to color match from my reference, it ended up looking like the saturation was turned up but I like it the way it is. One of my only concerns was the time limit we had, I’m a slow painter and if I hadn’t taken it home it wouldn’ve taken me about another week or so to finish since we only have an hour in class.

By: Braley V.

In class we had watched a movie about Van Gogh. Throughout this movie, we learned about impressionism and Van Gogh’s use of other elements and used his methods in our artwork. We had switched up our normal style of painting by using longer brushes, an easel, and more texture and detail in our paintings. For my painting I had done a dock with a sunset in the background that reflected off of the water. I chose this image because I love the way sunsets look especially when reflected off of water and i wanted to bring that into my artwork for this project

By: Madison S.

I chose the overview of Boston because I like the city and Boston is the best city around.
I had to learn how to make colors to match and do little strokes with the paint brush. The easel made it easier to hold the brush farther away so I did like the easel. The most challenging part of this project was making the buildings and doing the water. The most rewarding part was being able to finish the project in time. Mixing the colors made the painting look more realistic.

By: Cassidy V.

My inspiration photograph was a picture of a cranberry bog with a pond behind it. I chose this because there are many different textures in this image such as the water, foliage, cranberries, clouds, and small wooden buildings. The impressionism inspiration was used in my painting with the water, where I used a solid blue and painted little black and white lines instead of making the water realistic. I liked the stand up easels because they made life way easier because I can imagine painting like that sitting down or at a different angle. The most challenging part about painting was layering everything properly and in the right order. The most rewarding part was looking at the final product after finishing and being proud of what I made. With color mixing/matching I could make better looking textures like the foliage and the ground.

By: Andrew D.

I chose this image because it is a place I have been to in one of my favorite places, New York City. Van Gogh’s impressionist style affected my painting by mixing colors differently and on the canvas, and changing my brush stroke techniques. The most challenging part about painting was trying to mix colors to get the right shades, and the most rewarding part was the final product. Color mixing and matching made the painting process longer, but made the painting more beautiful in the end.

By: Elizabeth A.