In the history of landscape painting the tree of knowledge is often presented as a bare tree in opposition to the fruitful abundance of the tree of life. Winter however, presented peculiar challenges to 16th Century European artists aiming for naturalism or at least, imagery more realistic than presenting simple icons. Both trees, knowledge and life would need to be leafless in winter in order to present a rational and coherent winter scene.
Pieter Bruegel (example 1) and his son Jan Brueghel the Elder (who changed the family spelling to its older version) framed their landscapes with this same tree mythology. Here a winding serpentine path, trail, river lures the viewer into the painting and carries them across the entire picture plane.
Example 1. Pieter Bruegel landscape, painted with Pieter Van Bloemen, 1565,
In 1515 Joachim Patinier presents the same composition with his “Baptism of Christ” (example 2). Later you will see how I borrow and mutate the forms of Patinier and Bruegel in my landscapes. Before looking at my work let’s see how conventions are built over time by considering Rudolf Ribarz from Austria with his Dutch landscape of 1877 (example 3). Here the river has been supplanted by a roadway. The season is winter or late autumn. There are no waving fields of millet or barley here, only winter’s bare ground. Trees intermittently line the horizon. A cold minimalism lives here. Ribarz’s design lies in the turning edges of the fields. The distant mountainless horizon (it is Holland after all) relies on the silhouette of a farmhouse and trees.
Example 2. Joachim Patinier, 1515, 
Example 3. Rudolf Ribarz, 1914, Dutch landscape,
Later Dutch 17th century landscapes continued to the horizon further than their predecessors. By the mid-twentieth century after painting had turned away from the imitation of visual appearance to images constructed from the mind, gesture and materials older conventions still lingered.
But, the process of squeezing the horizon into a smaller band across the bottom (or across the top as in the case of Diebenkorn) continued. Observe example 4, an abstract color field painting from 1958 by Heinz Mack demonstrating the dynamic properties of yellow. He has two horizons, a low horizon along with a high thin horizon. He has a vertical field of yellow striations where the sky or landscape could be glowing. Ambiguity is stretched here. Meanders, Trees, and other iconic forms usually did not make it through the distillation and simplification process in the mid twentieth century.
Example 4. Heinz Mack, 1958,
Inconsideration of mid-twentieth century color field painting but, with an appreciation of the conventions of historic landscape painting I created example 5. Example 5a is one of a series of photos I snapped which would later inspire the work in example 5. The horizon is also small and high in this picture plane. The photos would be severely cropped.
Example 5a, one of several photos used before Photoshop alterations,
Example 5. Winter Meadow Light, 36×36, oil on enameled white laminated aluminum,
On a sunless Sunday in February I wandered through a nature preserve collecting images. Example 6 is one the images I snapped. It became the root of the image you see following step-by-step examples 7, 8, and 9. I played with this photo and a variety of others I took with it. After recomposing and other changes I began painting. Photoshop has often become a form of sketch pad for me in preparing designs for paintings. Contrast the initial photo with my final painting to trace the changes beginning with reconfiguring the image area into a square.
Example 6. One of the original photos (I referred to several) as snapped,
Example 7. Step one, blocking in “Winter Meadow and Stream”,
Example 8. Step two, an intermediate stage after ragging and initial squeegee work,
Example 9. Step three, the image at present which has been further modified from the image I posted on Instagram,
I invite you to my lecture “Visual Thinking, Deeper, Broader and More Inventive” on Sunday 4:30-6:00 PM February 25th at Silvermine Arts Center in New Canaan, Ct. call 203 966 6668 ext 2 or visit www.silvermineart.org
Join me this spring at the Huntsville Museum of Art (Huntsville Alabama) for a Master Workshop there, Natural Elements: Painting with the masters, Old & New Techniques with David Dunlop”. The workshop is part of the Museum Academy program. Thursday May 3rd – Sunday May 6; 9:00 am to 4:30 pm. Register on line at hsvmuseum.org or call 256 535 4350 ext 215.
John Love
Wonderful stuff..