The Secrets to Creating a Classical Landscape

 “Painting is but another word for feeling.”

–John Constable

Landscapes depicted through the eyes of the artist are interpretations - better than the real thing. The objective of landscape paintings is not to recreate the scene exactly, but to create something that is more interesting, to interpret the scene in a way that makes it even more beautiful, to create a painting that romanticizes reality.

Most landscape painters today strive for expressive landscape, in the effort to be more contemporary. Many do because, perhaps, the contemporary style allows them not to worry about any principles that govern painting. This knowledge of the principles, however, provides the artist more ease and control over the outcome. European landscape painting is only 300 years old. Landscape did not exist as a genre, until the masters of the 18th -19th century: Corot,  Constable, Reynolds, and Gainsborough, developed what we call today the classical landscape. Their naturalistic approach to depicting scenery is similar to the humble observing of beauty and striving to recreate it with respect and humility, and with passion.

Realistic, traditional approach to landscape is based on more than just the natural palette of greens and earth tones. It requires a solid grasp of the Tools of Mastery: composition, tonality, balance, harmony - the fundamentals, and in this course, you’ll learn how to use the Tools of Mastery when painting. This set of basics makes the traditional landscape a perfect study model, especially for the students who are new to landscape.

In this course, you will learn how to:

• Use the right brushes for different steps in the process
• Set your palette, know what pigments to use, and how to mix suitable colors
• Create an underpainting and paint in alla prima, and with glazing
• Stage a painting in terms of planes (foreground, middleground, and background) and create a convincing effect of distance and depth through aerial and linear perspective
• Properly use the Tools of Mastery when painting landscapes
• Complete 5 studies and create 1 refined classic landscape

This course will ground you in these specific skills and finetune your intuition, instead of relying on guesswork, hope, or chance. You will learn how to create a classic landscape from the very beginning through glazing, and then through direct painting. The first three weeks are dedicated to practice, the last three weeks are devoted to taking our time to a refined painting while using the techniques that you learned from the prior three weeks. 

The Secrets to Creating a Classical Landscape will give you a solid foundation for your own painting of a landscape that you will be able to adjust to plein air, in-studio painting, or painting from photo references because you’ll have the understanding of what makes landscape painting effective.