Mitchell Albala - Landscape painting: Essential Concepts and Techniques for Plein Air and Studio Practice

: Mitchell Albala, Ballard Bridge, 2000, oil on canvas, 29 22 inches (73.66 55.88 cm)

: Jim Lamb, Tuscan Hill Farm, 2007, oil on board, 15 15 inches (38.1 38.1 cm)

Above: Russell Chatham, Bare Trees and Hayfields in November, 1991, oil on canvas, 40 72 inches (101.6 182.88 cm)

: Kathleen Dunphy, Winter Light, 2007, oil on linen, 24 24 inches (60.96 60.96 cm)

: Roger Bechtold, Tree Rhythm 1 and 2, 2008, oil on canvas, 20 20 inches (50.8 50.8 cm)

: John McCormick, Western Wind, 2006, oil on canvas, 60 60 inches (152.4 152.4 cm)

Copyright 2009 Mitchell Albala

All rights reserved.
Published in the United States by Watson-Guptill Publications
an imprint of the Crown Publishing Group
a division of Random House, Inc., New York
www.crownpublishing.com
www.watsonguptill.com

WATSON-GUPTILL is a registered trademark and the WG and Horse designs are trademarks of Random House, Inc.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Albala, Mitchell, 1956
Landscape painting : essential concepts and techniques for plein air and studio practice / Mitchell Albala.
p. cm.
Includes index.
eISBN: 978-0-8230-0834-6
1. Landscape painting--Technique. I. Title.
ND1342.A42 2009
758.1--dc22
2009007429

rh_3.1_c0_r1

No endeavor as monumental as writing a book and populating it with over two hundred images could be done without the generous support of many talented and skilled colleagues and painters. Their contributions and insights are woven into the words and images of every page.

I would first like to thank my publisher, Watson-Guptill, for having the vision to imagine a different kind of landscape book. I am also indebted to the Gage Academy of Arts executive director, Pamela Belyea, and artistic director, Gary Faigin. Were it not for my long tenure with that energetic bastion of creativity, I might never have been in the position to write this book at all.

I surveyed the work of hundreds of artists for inclusion in the book and ultimately selected those whose paintings were not only distinctive in style but also had the power to clearly demonstrate the books many lessons. I am indebted to the many artists who generously allowed their paintings to appear in the book and to those institutions who granted permission to reproduce paintings from their collections: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, The Toledo Museum of Art, George Stern Fine Arts, and The Lisa Harris Gallery in Seattle.

I had the patient and skillful support of several talented editors who reviewed the manuscript before it was ever submitted to Watson-Guptill. Their keen insights challenged me and helped me fashion the book into a more accessible and accurate work: my deep appreciation to Margaret Davidson, David Dwyer, Alexis Mohr, and Joyce Prigot.

There were also many talented painters who lent their considerable visual and technical expertise to many important sections of the book: Rebecca Allan, Suzanne Brooker, Patrick Howe, Michael Stasinos, and Scott Gellatly, technical consultant for Gamblin Artists Colors, who helped ensure the accuracy of the information in .

I have been fortunate to have been surrounded by many creative souls whose keen eyes have helped me see better and more clearly: Rebecca Allan, Sharon Hager, Donald Paggeot, Michael Stasinos, and the members of the Sole Proprietors. Special thanks to Joyce Prigot for her unyielding encouragement and support throughout the project.

I have had the privilege of working with many enthusiastic students over the years. Their curiosity and openness have helped me become a better teacher and see the world in new ways.

I am grateful to my earliest instructors: Sampson Engoren, my high school art instructor, who impressed upon me the need to differentiate myself from my art; and Robert Birmelin and Arie Galles, my college art instructors, for showing me the underlying abstraction within nature.

Lastly, I would like to thank my father, Max Albala, who bought my first art materials and who, to this day, looks at my paintings and still asks, What is that?

Della Albala, Postcard, 1949, oil on canvas, 10 14 inches, (25.4 35.56 cm)

For my mother,
Della Albala,
my first and most
patient teacher.

Roger Bechtold, Tree Rhythm 1 and 2, 2008, oil on canvas, 20 20 inches (50.8 50.8 cm)

I have always been fascinated by the challenge of painting the landscape, not simply out of a pure love of nature, but because of the benefits it affords me as a painter. When nature is my inspiration and subject, I am witness to an extraordinary range of color and every imaginable atmospheric condition. I find a wealth of interesting shapes, patterns, and textures, and, above all, an ideal opportunity to play with the inherent abstraction within nature.

These qualities are what make the landscape such an alluring subject. However, they are also the qualities that make painting the landscape so challenging. Because nature is so extreme in its expansiveness and complexity, so varied in its range of light, landscape painters often have to look further and more deeply to find what all artists seekform and structure, value patterns, and an organized arrangement of shapes.

When I first began to work from the landscape, my efforts were met with frustration. I had studied art in college and could draw and paint reasonably well; yet, when I made my first forays into the field (Central Park in New York City), nothing seemed to work as it had in the college studios. It was as though I needed to learn painting all over again. Landscape was more variable and more complex than other subjects. It seemed disorganized and rambling, and I couldnt arrange my subjects or control the lighting as I had in the studio. Over time, I cultivated a set of practices to deal with these challenges. When I organized these practices into a coherent systemthat I applied every time I approached the landscapeI got consistently better results. Those concepts and practices are the subject of this book.