Special Edition Artist-Length Version of Season Two of Landscapes Through Time with David Dunlop

Special Edition Artist-Length Version of Season Two of
Emmy® Nominated PBS Series Landscapes Through Time with David Dunlop 

Six Programs (each 1.5 hours to 2 hours in length) on 4 Dual-layer DVDs and NOW Available ONLINE (over 11 hours of Programming)
$134.95 for all 6 Programs and $29.95 for any individual Program
This Special Edition Artist-Length Version of  Season Two of Landscapes Through Time with David Dunlop was created for our Kickstarter Campaign to raise production funds to produce our Second Season.  We produced 6 programs in a longer format than our 30-minute PBS version (each approximately 1.5 hours to 2 hours in length) and several programs contain additional painting demonstrations that we could not include in our PBS versions because of time constraints.

In Season Two, learn how Turner, Sargent, Guardi and Whistler painted the magic of Venice, how Winslow Homer painted the tumultuous seas of Maine, and the Hudson River painters explored the intimate streams of New England.  Season Two of Landscapes Through Time with David Dunlop is the second season of the innovative, lively and entertaining Emmy® and CINE Golden Eagle Award winning PBS series that takes you to the actual locations in Italy and the United States that inspired the great artists J.M.W. Turner, John Singer Sargent, Francesco Guardi, James Abbott McNeill Whistler, Winslow Homer, and the Hudson River artists to create some of their most iconic works.  Season Two continues to explore the lives, techniques and inspiration of these master artists through a combination of discussion and demonstration in the beautiful locations that inspired them. Enlivened by David Dunlop’s infectious enthusiasm and encyclopedic knowledge, Landscapes Through Time combines art, history, travel, philosophy, science and technique to explore the lives and art of a wide range of different artists, creating a new way for artists as well as a general television audience to experience and visually participate in the power and magic of the act of artistic creation.

30 Second Video of Season Two:  Landscapes Through Time with David Dunlop

Program 201 -J.M.W. Turner’s Visions of Venice (105 minutes)

David travels to Venice to visit many of the locations painted by the great painter J.M.W. Turner in some of his most inspired paintings. In an introduction on the Punta della Dogana, the point of the old Customs House of Venice in the mouth of the Grand Canal, David reveals how Turners’ art not only reflects the aesthetics of his time, but also offers a prescient view of painting’s future through his personal experimentation and vision. David considers the role of Venice as a sensual catalyst in Turner’s work. We visit the Piazza San Marco to consider the vital role Venice played in the lives of centuries of artists and how its artistic reputation for innovation from Bellini through Titian, Tintoretto, Guardi, and Canaletto stimulated Turner’s imagination in paint.

Drawing and Watercolour Demonstration (THIS DEMONSTRATION IS ONLY FOUND IN THIS LONGER VERSION). David traces Turner’s development from young progeny to elder iconoclast and explores how Turner changed his intentions, technique and effects, reflecting changes caused by societal and scientific events. David demonstrates Turner’s watercolor techniques while standing near the former Hotel Europa, where Turner stayed in Venice. He considers the birth of Romanticism as it shaped Turner. He investigates the influences on Turner of the scholar/poet Goethe, the artist Claude, his peers and patrons, and the Royal Academy of Art.

Oil Painting Demonstration (A Shorter Version is in the PBS version). David then moves his easel to a small landing across from Santa Maria della Salute to paint an oil painting overlooking the Dogana and San Giorgio Maggiore, the same scenes immortalized in many of Turner’s transcendent paintings. David illustrates how Turner interacted with specific locations when sketching en plein air and later painting in his studio.

David discusses how Turner’s work anticipates the psychology of perception. He examines Turner’s color iconology, color theory, his palette, his tools, his application and explanation of additive and subtractive painting and simultaneous and successive contrast.

As one of history’s greatest landscape painters, Turner transfers his innovative watercolor techniques to his oil painting, and David demonstrates these remarkable techniques and offers his unique and entertaining insight into the personal, artistic, and historic context in which Turner lived and worked in the inspiring and transformative city of Venice.

In Francesco Guardi’s Venice, David  travels to the inspiring and magical city of Venice, Italy – an alluring beacon for artists throughout the centuries. David visits several locations in Venice that inspired all of these artists and considers the inspirational role of the city on the life and paintings of 18th century Venetian landscape painter Francesco Guardi (1712-1783). Younger than the famous Venetian painter Canaletto, Guardi’s evocative, passionate paintings of Venice have received an increasingly enthusiastic appreciation in later centuries.

Pen and Ink Drawing and Lesson in Perspective (THIS DEMONSTRATION IS ONLY FOUND IN THIS LONGER VERSION). David sets up his easel on the courtyard of the beautiful baroque church, Santa Maria della Salute, located on the Grand Canal of Venice. He discusses Guardi’s use and understanding of perspective, which was an essential tool for these painters, and creates a pen and ink drawing, followed by an ink wash.

Oil Painting Demonstration (A Shorter Version is in the PBS version).  David then travels to Guardi’s home district of the Cannaregio on the northern curve of the Grand Canal. He discusses and demonstrates Guardi’s methods and palette as he paints an oil demonstration of the same canal scene painted by Guardi, Canaletto and Michele Marieschi, in whose workshop Guardi painted as a young man. Like many Venetian painters, Guardi was born into a family of painters and also painted with his brother Giovanni Antonio Guardi until his brother’s death in 1757. David explores Guardi’s spirited brushstrokes and expressive skies at a timeless scene of Venice, and the program includes many illustrations of Venetian scenes of different painters who influenced Guardi.

Shot on site, Francesco Guardi’s Venice features David’s unique and entertaining insight into the personal, artistic, and historic context in which Francesco Guardi lived and worked as David explores Guardi’s paintings and techniques.

Program 203 – John Singer Sargent in Venice (131 minutes)

Like so many artists before him, John Singer Sargent’s (1856-1925) extensive travels brought him to Venice to discover a city of light and color. David discusses Sargent’s itinerant childhood with expatriate parents, a Philadelphia doctor and free spirited mother who escaped the tragedy of the death of their first born child by traveling to Europe – becoming eternal tourists. Sargent was born in Florence, and David explores his early artistic training in Italy and in France, where he studied with the famed Carolus-Duran. David traces Turner’s development from young progeny to the most celebrated society painter of his time as Sargent continues to travel throughout Europe, England, and the United States. Weary of portraiture, Sargent turns to dazzling plein air watercolor landscapes, including many painted in Venice.

David sets his easel where Sargent set his and recreates Sargent’s plein air explorations in oil and watercolor, rediscovering the spontaneous joy of Sargent before his motif.

Watercolor Painting Demonstration (A Shorter Version is in the PBS version). We visit the famously painted the Piazza dei Giovanni e Paolo, where David sits in a café overlooking the famous piazza, the Riva de Mendicante, and the Renaissance Equestrian Statue of Bartolomeo Colleoni ( 1483). He demonstrates Sargent’s watercolor techniques in a watercolor sketch of the scene painted by Sargent.

Oil Painting Demonstration (THIS DEMONSTRATION IS ONLY FOUND IN THIS LONGER VERSION).  David travels across Venice and sets up his easel on a balcony overlooking the bacino, the mouth of the Grand Canal, where a younger Sargent painted a view of the bacino and the street below, the Riva degli Schiavoni.

David demonstrates Sargent’s remarkable techniques and offers his unique and entertaining insight into the personal, artistic, and historic context in which Sargent lived and worked in the inspiring and glittering city of Venice.

Program 204 –  James Abbott McNeill Whistler’s Venice (120 minutes)

In our PBS series, we created 2 programs from this Whistler program, the Drypoint on Copper Plate Demonstration on a Canal  and the Pastel Demonstration Overlooking a Venetian Panorama, but we were not able to include the Oil Painting Demonstration in Piazza San Marco in fading twilight because of time constraints.  In this program, all three demonstrations are included.  David travels to three locations in the magical city of Venice, Italy that inspired provocative, iconoclastic artist James Abbott McNeill Whistler (1834-1903) during his transformative trip in 1879-1880. Whistler had escaped to Venice from London in 1879 at the conclusion of an explosive libel trial against John Ruskin, who had harshly criticized his paintings in an exhibition. The trial bankrupted Whistler – who won, but only a farthing.  His trip to Venice was financed by a commission from the Fine Arts society of London for a series of Venetian etchings. His pastels and etchings of Venice reflected a changing perspective about art and were instrumental in reviving his artistic reputation through their innovative techniques.

Drypoint on Copper Plate Demonstration on a Canal (A Shorter Version is in the PBS version).  In the first demonstration, David sets up his easel alongside the Rio de San Barnaba and demonstrates the process of making a drypoint on a copper plate of a small courtyard, discussing Whistler’s techniques and creative process, including his use of perspective and an evolving style in drypoint and etching.

Pastel Demonstration Overlooking Venetian Panorama (A Shorter Version is in the PBS version).  David then travels to the Giudecca, a Venetian island facing the mouth of the Grand Canal, a favorite view painted by many artists. Overlooking the broad panorama of Venice, David demonstrates Whistler’s use of pastels to capture the moment of sunlight, exploring Whistler’s experiments on colored paper using different techniques with pastels. He discusses and demonstrates Whistler’s methods and spirited strokes and palette to capture a timeless scene of Venice painted by Guardi, Canaletto and Turner.

Oil Painting Demonstration in Piazza San Marco (THIS DEMONSTRATION IS ONLY FOUND IN THIS LONGER VERSION).  Finally, David travels to Piazza San Marco, a favorite site of tourists and artists alike. In the twilight, fading rapidly to night, David captures a quick oil sketch of the Basilica di San Marco, the same scene painted by Whistler in one of his most evocative oil paintings.

Shot on site in Venice, James Abbott McNeill Whistler’s Venice features David’s unique and entertaining insight into the personal, artistic, and historic context in which Whistler lived and worked as David explores his etchings, pastels and oils.

Program 205 – Winslow Homer’s Seas at Prouts Neck, Maine (85 minutes)

In this Program, David travels on the rocky shores of Prouts Neck, Maine, where the famously enigmatic Winslow Homer moved for the last 27 years of his life and painted some of his most recognizable, theatrical, and iconic seascapes. David explores how this former acclaimed illustrator from Massachusetts became the emblem of Americana in paint and defined a simple, stubborn, self-reliant American spirit triumphing over European influence. David walks along the cliffs and visits Homer’s studio, a former carriage house planted on his family’s land, recently renovated by the Portland Museum of Art.

Watercolor Painting Demonstration (A Shorter Version is in the PBS version). David places his easel at the same rocky locations on the coast overlooking the sea that were captured by Homer in his heroic paintings. Battling the wind, David paints a watercolor at the location of the famed Cannon Rock, demonstrating Homer’s fluid, confident watercolor techniques that he used to such powerful, evocative success in the Adirondacks, Cullercoats and the Bahamas.

Oil Painting Demonstration (A Shorter Version is in the PBS version).  David then moves his easel to a spot overlooking the sea in front of Homer’s studio. He considers Homer’s palette choices, his canvas toning, his simplification of the design, his reliance on chiaroscuro and complementary contrasts. He demonstrates how Homer would build his colors like a sculptor, using a wide variety of brushstrokes and his signature bravura technique to suggest rocky planes, scumbled sea foam, and unfurling waves. David demonstrates Homer’s powerful strategy of creating graphically simple designs, high-contrast values, and dramatic motion grounded in critical observation and his vision of the primal, impersonal forces of nature crashing against man’s illusion of stability. 

Program 206 – The Woodland Streams of the Hudson River Painters (105 minutes)

In The Woodland Streams of the Hudson River Painters, David travels to a woodland stream in a nature preserve in New England, following in the footsteps of Hudson River painters such as Thomas Cole and Asher Durand. David paints an intimate stream in a setting of dense and dappled foliage while discussing the spiritual dimension of the paintings of the Hudson River Painters, America’s first painting movement. He examines the microenvironment scenes painted by Asher Durand and discusses the sublime landscape paintings of the young America.

Watercolor Painting Demonstration (A Shorter Version is in the PBS version). David sets his easel in a stream bed similar to the streams painted by the Hudson River Painters in the 1800’s, painting a watercolor and an oil sketch of the scene. He demonstrates different techniques of painting the dense trees and rippling water and considers of the optic qualities of painting water to convey emotion as well as inspiration.

Oil Painting Demonstration (A Shorter Version is in the PBS version). David turns his easel to paint an oil painting of the stream, exploring the process of painting dense foliage and the curtain of green as well as the sense of movement in water, captured on a canvas.

David offers his unique and entertaining insight into the personal, artistic, and historic context in which the Hudson River Painters lived and worked and paints the same inspiring streams of the New England woods.

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