Landscape Painting: Essential Concepts and Techniques for Plein Air and Studio Practice

Because nature is so expansive and complex, so varied in its range of light, landscape painters often have to look further and more deeply to find form and structure, value patterns, and an organized arrangement of shapes. In Landscape Painting, Mitchell Albala shares his concepts and practices for translating nature's grandeur, complexity, and color dynamics into convincing representations of space and light. Concise, practical, and inspirational, Landscape Painting focuses on the greatest challenges for the landscape artist, such as: - Simplification and Massing: Learn to reduce nature's complexity by looking beneath the surface of a subject to discover the form's basic masses and shapes.- Color and Light: Explore color theory as it specifically applies to the landscape, and learn the various strategies painters use to capture the illusion of natural light.- Selection and Composition: Learn to select wisely from nature's vast panorama. Albala shows you the essential cues to look for and how to find the most promising subject from a world of possibilities. The lessons in Landscape Painting--based on observation rather than imitation and applicable to both Plein air and studio practice--are accompanied by painting examples, demonstrations, photographs, and diagrams. Illustrations are drawn from the work of more than 40 contemporary artists and such masters of landscape painting as John Constable, Sanford Gifford, and Claude Monet. Based on Albala's 25 years of experience and the proven methods taught at his successful Plein air workshops, this in-depth guide to all aspects of landscape painting is a must-have for anyone getting started in the genre, as well as more experienced practitioners who want to hone their skills or learn new perspectives.

Author: Mitchell Albala
Publisher: Watson-Guptill
Published: 11/17/2009
Pages: 192
Binding Type: Hardcover
Weight: 2.46lbs
Size: 11.26h x 9.34w x 0.78d
ISBN: 9780823032204

About the Author
MITCHELL ALBALA teaches landscape painting at the Gage Academy of Art in Seattle. A respected and dedicated teaching artist for more than 20 years, he is best known for his atmospheric and semi-abstract landscapes of the Pacific Northwest and Alaska. He has lectured on impressionism at the Seattle Art Museum, has written about landscape painting for American Artist magazine, and hosts an educational website at "mitchellalbalacom". He has exhibited nationally and is represented by the Lisa Harris Gallery in Seattle