More of Van Gogh's Landscapes

Casey Klahn responded to my last post with a post on his blog The Colorist with a link to the video which follows.

It's an excellent video of stills of Van Gogh's Landscapes - many of which reflect the harvest and Autumn.  You'll note the contrast in his approach in later years to painting trees - when compared to those in the preceding post.

Autumn Landscape by Vincent van Gogh

Autumn Landscape (October/November 1885) 
by Vincent van Gogh
oil on canvas laid down on panel, 67cm x 88cm
Location: Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge

I found this painting by Van Gogh interesting for two reasons.

First I'd never ever have guessed it was a painting by Van Gogh.  I'm familiar with his drawings from his time in the Netherlands - see Van Gogh: Drawing Landscapes (Making A Mark 14.2.07) but wouldn't immediately connect the style in those drawings to his painting of these trees

However L'Allée en Automne (Autumn Landscape) is a painting in the Fitzwilliam Museum in Cambridge and is attributed to Van Gogh despite the apparent lack of a signature.

Second, the image of the painting in the Museum is much more subdued than the image on Wikipaintings - which is VERY red.  One wonders whether the latter is a copy from a Chinese Art sweatshop or just hyped up in Photoshop to make it look more interesting!  I've subdued this image and reproduced it at the top - but to my mind it still looks too red!

I am persuaded that the painting leans towards brown as, to my mind, all Van Gogh's Dutch paintings seem to lean towards brown.  This was BEFORE he discovered colour and whoever hyped up the wikipaintings version is probably not aware of how truly sombre his Dutch paintings are.  Whether the nature of the colour in his Dutch paintings was an actual colour choice or just a function of the paints he used - which may have lost colour over time - I'm not sure.  I rather suspect it might be a combination of the two.

We certainly all need to be aware that the art we see on the Internet is not necessarily the way the art looks in reality.  Of course, the image on the Fitzwilliam website could just be unnecessarily dull.  If that is indeed the case it certainly wouldn't be the first time I've seen a website image which doesn't look the same as the real thing.  However its colour and tone is much more like other Dutch paintings by Van Gogh that I've seen - and I think this image is much likely to be a true representation of what it actually looks like in reality.

Anybody seen the painting in the Fitzwilliam who knows the answer?

Anybody know why Van Gogh wasn't signing his paintings in 1885?

Are you surprised this is a Van Gogh?

For more about Van Gogh see my posts tagged Van Gogh on Making A Mark or my resource site set up when I was doing my project about his work Vincent van Gogh - Resources for Art Lovers

Niagara Escarpment - Reader's Autumn Landscapes #4

November, Letting go (Sold)
oil on canvas, 24x36in

Jan Yates SCA (Jan Yates) lives on the Niagara Escarpment in Canada (a UNESCO world biosphere reserve) and this is the view out of her studio window this month - see Cycle.

She's  a Canadian visual artist - inspired by Canada's Emily Carr who very much focuses on painting the natural and agricultural landscapes around her home.  She wrote in response to my post about the Painting Canada exhibition about the Group of Seven.

Jan paints almost entirely plein air in fields and farms surrounding her home on the Niagara Escarpment.  I very much like the idea that she finds November to be very stimulating

For me November brings a new cycle of inspiration and tends to be one of my most prolific months. As I write there are already a couple of ‘Novembers’ waiting on the easel in various states of ‘undress’.
words written last November and reiterated this week in Cycle

Below she describes her artistic practice in developing her work in general.

My artistic practice is fuelled by changes in our agricultural world. For the past decade in all seasons and weather I have hiked and painted in farms and fields surrounding my home on the Niagara Escarpment (a UNESCO world biosphere reserve). I have developed a body of work in direct response to climate change, specifically affecting agriculture in the Niagara region. In order to create an intimate dialogue with the earth’s growth, decay and renewal my paintings are rendered directly on the land. As well as painting plein air with oil on canvas in an immediate and visceral approach, I have started to synthesize these paintings with my encaustic works. After an outdoor painting session I gather wild seeds, old growth fragments, field flowers and vine to embed and embroider into beeswax. This process reflects a connection with the seasons and cycle of growth and also represents preservation of faith in what the land will give. I will continue to explore and cultivate this fusion and see where it will take me.

How to get your paintings of Autumn posted on this blog

This is the fourth in my series of Autumn Landscapes by readers of this blog.

If you're interested in having your images displayed as part of the seasonal changes, just drop me a line (see side column for email) and reference the blog post in which I can see the painting.

Places to Paint: Please note that I'm interested in the place as well as what led you to paint it in Autumn.

I can't promise to display all that I'm told about. Plus there is an absolute rule which is that this is for art bloggers only ie "no blog post, no feature on my blog".

Note: If you like Canadian landscapes, you might like to take a peek at Canadian Art Calendars 2012 which provides some economical options for hanging a lot of landscape art by Canadian artists

Links:

• Ontario's Niagara Escarpment
• Wikipedia - Niagara Escarpment

Yukon, Canada - Reader's Autumn Landscapes #3

Title: Driving the Dempster

Medium: Mixed Media

Size: 6x8

Jackie Irvine (Jackie Irvine's Landscape Art) lives in the Yukon in Northern Canada which, for those who don't know it, is wilderness country.

Jackie paints purely for her own enjoyment - having dreamed of being a painter since she was a child.  Her painting is #6 of 100 painting in 100 days, all of which are in this same area of the Canol Road. I'm guessing that, given the location, getting out to paint gets a tad more difficult in the coming days!

Places to paint:  The area she is painting is called the South Canol Road (Canol is short for Canadian Oil - which is why the road was built). Click the link to read about it.  This blog also gives an idea of what the area is like

How to get your paintings of Autumn posted on this blog

If you're interested in having your images displayed as part of the seasonal changes, just drop me a line (see side column for email) and reference the blog post in which I can see the painting.

Places to paint: Please note that I'm interested in the place as well as what led you to paint it in Autumn.

I can't promise to display all that I'm told about. Plus there is an absolute rule which is that this is for art bloggers only ie "no blog post, no feature on my blog".

Note:  If you like Canadian landscapes, you might like to take a peek at Canadian Art Calendars 2012 which provides some economical options for hanging a lot of landscape art by Canadian artists

Autumn Landscapes - Sheffield Park

This is my personal contribution to the posts on this blog about Autumn landscapes.  Last week we travelled to Sheffield Park which is the only National Trust place I know which increases its entrance charges for the Autumn Colour season!

Sheffield Park - 29th October 2011
pen and ink and coloured pencil, 11.5" x 16"
copyright Katherine Tyrrell

The garden was originally laid out around four lakes by Capability Brown and an arboretum of native and exotic trees was subsequently established.

It contains many fine specimens of trees (eg Black Tupelos) and a high proportion of these - particularly the acer/maples and beeches turn a very fine colour in Autumn.  Hence the high number of visitors who turn out to look at the colours of Autumn.

Certainly it's a very fine place to paint in Autumn - particularly given the reflections of the colours of the trees in the water of the lakes.  The photographers are also rather keen on it.  I think I saw more heavy duty expensive cameras with huge lenses on our visit than I've seen for a very long time.

Arboretums are certainly a great place to paint and draw landscapes in Autumn!

Dale Hollow State Park - Reader's Autumn Landscapes #2

Autumn Oak by Bill Guffey
18" x 24", oil, plein air

Bill Guffey was plein air painting in Dale Hollow State Park last Saturday - at the end of October - and captured a golden scene.

Places to Paint: Dale Hollow Lake State Resort Park is located in south-central Kentucky in the Cumberland River basin on the Obey River.

Bill lives in Burkesville Kentucky and you can see more of his paintings of American landscape on his website

How to get your paintings of Autumn posted on this blog

If you're interested in having your images displayed as part of the seasonal changes, just drop me a line (see side column for email) and reference the blog post in which I can see the painting.

Places to paint: Please note that I'm interested in the place as well as what led you to paint it in Autumn.

I can't promise to display all that I'm told about. Plus there is an absolute rule which is that this is for art bloggers only ie "no blog post, no feature on my blog".

Limousin, France - Reader's Autumn Landscapes #1

Autumn Sunlight near Verinas

I asked readers of Making A Mark to submit images of their autumn landscapes for posting on The Art of the Landscape.  The first artist to respond was Nigel Fletcher who now lives in the Limousin National Park in France - this is his blog Painting the Limousin and this is the site where you can see his November paintings for sale.

The first one he sent me is called Falling Leaves (see below).  This one is excellent at catching that point at which there leaves are all yellow and orange gold

However when I went to his blog to pick up the link I saw the little stunner which is at the image at the top of this post - Autumn sunlight near Verinas.  What I like about this one is it also catches the long low light of autumn which is so good for showing off the colours.  Plus the brilliant contrast of complimentary colours you get when you get leaves which have changed against a brilliant blue sky.  Now that's what I call making the most of natural artistry.

Autumn Leaves

How to get your paintings of Autumn posted on this blog


If you're interested in having your images displayed as part of the seasonal changes, just drop me a line (see side column for email) and reference the blog post in which I can see the painting.

Places to paint: Please note that I'm interested in the place as well as what led you to paint it in Autumn.

I can't promise to display all that I'm told about. Plus there is an absolute rule which is that this is for art bloggers only ie "no blog post, no feature on my blog".