In the late 18th century John Robert Cozens discovered he could make abstract patterns that could be perceived as landscapes. His insight was a hundred years premature. By the late 19th century Impressionists were already departing from their original agenda … Continued
J.M.W. Turner, the great English landscape painter, referred to his atmospheric effects as tinted steam. He perceived their atmospheric uncertainty as his paintings’ most engaging quality. Ambiguous atmospheric effects suggested more volume, motion, and space than delineated subjects could hope … Continued
European conventions for both subject matter and composition were well in place by the 1500’s. How to describe and color, fabric, stone, armor, water, trees, were conventionally defined but, were continually refined through the sensitive observations of artists like Mantegna, … Continued