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 Explore our
Archived
Exhibitions |
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by Vanessa Conte
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Visions of the American Landscape |
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Endless shores,
snow-cropped peaks,
rolling plains,
lush forests... |
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For as many citizens as there are in the United States, there are as many visions of the great American landscape. The skilled eyes and hands of artists in America have attempted to grasp this subject since the beginning of the 19th century, when settlers passed a contented gaze over their new homeland.
Picturesque scenes of endless shores, snow-capped mountain peaks, rolling plains, and lush forests of the New World awaited interpretation. Almost two hundred years later, America continues to be rediscovered by contemporary artists from coast to coast. |
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From New York to Nantucket |
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a painting can
often reveal the
personal underpinnings
of the artist's choice... |
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Examining a painting can often reveal the personal underpinnings of the artist's choice of setting. Rosalind Tobias' "Lawn and Trees" was painted in the small Dutch town of Schuylerville in upstate New York, just miles away from the artist's home and birthplace, New York City.
Tobias has consciously chosen to paint locally to give her audience a sense of her roots. "Trees, Late Afternoon" records a few passing moments spent by the artist in Central Park's afternoon shadows. |
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A Land Thousands of Miles Away... |
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from his
birthplace of
Istanbul, Turkey.. |
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Apo Torosyan portrays a land thousands of miles from his birthplace of Istanbul, Turkey. In "Peacham," the vantage point places the viewer from beneath the shelter of the classic white porch of a small-town Vermont farmhouse. Each summer the artist visits Peacham and describes it as "one of the most beautiful places [he] know[s]." From another viewpoint, the two hundred-year-old "Farm House," is a self-proclaimed symbol of Americana is grandiose in age and stature. |
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David Bradford ...from seascape to urban scene. |
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The Bay Area
is home to the
artist's parents... |
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David Bradford's subjects vary from seascape to urban scene. "Golden Gate Bridge, I" subtly captures the artist's view of this West Coast landmark. The Bay Area is home to the artist's parents, whom he was visiting while he painted this scene. Bradford then returns to his native East Coast in "Nantucket Harbor," painted on a typically overcast day while the artist was vacationing at the old whaling port. |
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Dan Scher ...approaching the site... |
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...recording the changing
light with an
application of
spontaneous
color patches |
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Dan Scher approaches the same site numerous times to achieve his semi-abstract landscape compositions. He has been painting at Inwood Hill Park in northern Manhattan for 15 years, recording the changing light with an application of spontaneous color patches. The eight paintings in the "Inwood Hill" series, "present the viewer with the real, truthful, space." |
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Individual Interpretations |
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fenced landscapes
are psychological
responses to the
concept of distance |
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The American landscape has undergone a many-layered metamorphosis through its history. The six artists in "American Landscape" each offer a unique vision of their environments based on their personal histories and individual interpretations.
Christopher Fabbri, whose fenced landscapes are psychological responses to the concept of distance, has a realistic yet temporal approach. Areas of realistic colors are heavily brushed to smooth the surfaces. These impressions of Maine, inspired by memories of childhood vacations, are neither realistic nor abstract but fall somewhere in between.
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Surroundings as Setting |
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Zinnes pays
careful attention
to the local
color of her
surroundings |
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In "Back Again," Alice Zinnes shares her experience painting beneath the peaceful trees by the Delaware Water Gap. Each surface seems to be rough and spontaneous, but implies a period of meticulous observation of her surroundings. Like Scher, Zinnes pays careful attention to the local color of her surroundings. The circuitous dirt road at a farm in northeastern Pennsylvania, reddened from the rich iron deposits, was the inspirational setting for "Bush Farm." |
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The style |
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A painter's style
can also reveal
the particular way
that the artist
is seeing the
landscape |
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A painter's style can also reveal the particular way that the artist is seeing the landscape. Whereas Rosalind Tobias' Impressionist scenes rely on the color of the light she sees to compose a realist image, David Bradford employs a crisp linear style that he has developed over years of appreciating the styles of other landscape artists such as David Hopper and Cezanne.
Dan Scher creates his bold expressions of color by "thinking, feeling, and reacting" to the landscape before his eyes. "I try to absorb everything around me, responding to the sounds, color, light, atmosphere and geography as I work." |
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