A friend of ours let us stay in her country house in exchange for taking care of her plants. The small apartment is near a village called Montevirginio about 50 km from Rome. The weather was exceptionally hot but the ancient walls of the apartment and its likeable location kept the inside cool. There’s no internet connection so I was able to dedicate myself to painting.
I got up at 5:45 and finished sometime before 10 am. Then I went out again at about 4:45 pm and worked till about 8 pm. I was able to go back to a couple places for two sessions in order to finish because I was working with a large dimension canvas. In between sessions, I also did some drawing and ink paintings as well. A rightfully productive moment!
Landscape painting takes into consideration the idea of the spectator. What does the person that is looking at the landscape painting see? Obviously, the most important factor is not the realistic representation of what the painter saw because a photograph would work quite well for that. The spectator of the painted landscape is both the painter (firstly) and viewer (secondly).
There is the objective spectator and the subjective spectator. The place where the artist stood is objective and the space (or light) that the painting captures is subjective. There is the outside of the painting (material: paint, canvas, etc.) and the inside (what the painting evokes).
The painter and viewer are both objective and subjective to the painting’s representation. They both have an objective viewpoint as they can detach themselves from the place and try to experience the space, colour or composition of the painting. But on the inside, in the subjective realm, the place could actually have a very personal connection with the viewer or painter. This connection could be psychological, social or personal.
So there are these different levels of thinking about landscape painting which seems interesting to consider. All said, I think that I am mostly interested in the objective part of landscape painting.
Oils
Watercolours
