Landscape Art

Landscape painting or landscape art focuses on creating a large view. Subject matter such as trees, water, rocks and other natural features are heavily emphasised and arranged coherently. Landscape painting has its roots in both the East and Western cultures. The two are historically divided, with the East often romanticising and using poetry as an aid to imagining scenes, whilst the West regarded landscape art as low down in the hierarchy of genres, meaning a narrative or historical event would be the main subject, with its landscape as literally a backdrop to the event.

Famous landscape pieces from the west include Claude Joseph Vernet, a famous landscape artist who focused on contrasting weather and moonlight scenes. Click here.

Tenshō Shūbun was a 15^th century Japanese artist, famous for his landscape of the four seasons, which is said to have started the Japanese National style.

Experimenting with observation is good practice for A-level art. Portfolios in both AQA and Edexcel courses can show the development and critical analysis of the student’s own art. Still life can be based around any subject at home, and composition can be experimented with easily. There is a plethora of artists and themes to experiment with, and plenty of modern social media sites such as Pinterest and Tumblr are home to contemporary designers and other A-level works.

Landscape art can be more difficult due to weather conditions and availability of good backdrops. A helpful tip can be to take as many photographs while on the move and try to re-create these at home.