I’m not sure exactly why I
love plein air paintings so much.
Perhaps its the way the artist uses natural light, or that a specific
moment in nature is captured, frozen.
Landscape paintings evoke for me a feeling of calm, openness,
freshness. I’m a jealous art viewer. I want
to be able to paint the beautiful scenes I see but I have no talent there. I suspect my passion for these open air
paintings has something to do with daydreaming…
I especially love Danish
pieces and have collected several over the past 10 years or so – some turn of
the century and some more modern but all have that certain quality of peace.
When I sit and look at them I feel transported to that very spot, the chair of
the artist.
I can almost smell the grassy fields.
Inspired by the French
Barbizon School Realists (1830s-1870s) and the Impressionists (1870s –1880s),
the Scandinavian artists broke from the stuffy, traditional techniques of the
Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts and followed the trends they were learning
from the French.
So glad they did!
Below are some photos of a few of my favorites:
Unsigned landscape with house. I believe this is a Utah scene. It is small, 4x7.
I found this in a little shop in Park City in 1990.
This one by William G. Erle (Danish 1878-1967) dates from the 1940's.
It is also a small painting, measuring 8x10.
I love the big, open sky and repeating, horizontal composition.
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