Ralph Oberg
Landscape Art provides clear views into the varied experiences we all have in reaction to the natural world. Artists and non-artists alike each have their own particular physical and psychological makeup that filters and colors their interpretation of the world around us and no two can be said to be identical. Artists work hard learning how to interpret and communicate their personal experiences with their subjects, using their chosen mediums and individual techniques. The resulting works and the artists who create them are as varied as the emotional and intellectual responses they go through during their creative process.
The classical motif of landscape continues, as it long has, to offer inspiration to artists through it's ever changing light, colors, forms and moods, as seen through the personal prism of the artist’s eye. Some landscape artists work plein air, in the sun, wind, rain and bugs, for the naturally resulting spontaneity and the informative value of working from life. Others choose to work in the studio for deeper contemplation of their subjects and compositions. Some artists combine the two different approaches very effectively.
Working plein air has been a tool of artists since before oil paints could be easily carried into the field. Jean Stern, Executive Director of the Irvine Museum, has recently noted that artists should continue to “honour nature by properly portraying her majesty and grandeur. A small plein air sketch just will not do.” This was not said to denigrate the beauty or value of small plein air paintings, but to point out that we can develop finer paintings if we would keep the best of those small paintings in our studios at least until used as inspirational and informational references for major studio works. Many of the past landscape masters might be appalled to know their small plein air studies are now being sold as completed works or as an end in themselves. Generally these studies belonged in the studio and were seldom signed.
Today’s fashion of “small wet painting” shows has fostered a rather short-sighted vision of this valuable tool. Drawings and watercolors were the original media used for the outdoor inspirations and notations the artists would later take into the studio for more complete development in oils. Many of us love working outside for it’s freshness and excitement. These "on the spot" works are often beautiful little jewels, eagerly sought after by collectors, that if kept in the studio, might also inspire further development. In my own experience I have sold many plein air pieces that I wish I still had available to use as reference.
This show represents a broad range of different painting approaches and individual styles. These fine painters are exhibiting works that show their unique visions and subtle appreciation of the natural world for us to consider. We may feel a resonance with something from our own experiences, taking us back to a cherished memory, or we may be afforded a totally new vision of our natural world.
I’m sure you will greatly enjoy this intimately guided tour through The Colorado Landscape.
Ralph Oberg
Plein Air Painters of America
