Marvin Jemal: Landscape Painting

Landscapes can be painted en plein air or from a photograph. Plein air is a French term that means "in the open air". The benefit of plein air painting is that you can see the landscape right in front of you. You are already immersed and absorbed in the beauty of the scenery. Landscape painter Marvin Jemal indicates that there are, however, benefits to working from a photograph as well. If you work from photographs, you can work in the comfort and privacy of your own studio, without being dependent on daylight or the weather. You can also take certain elements from different photos to create a unique composite landscape. Marvin Jemal shares an example: if you like a hill from one photo and a gnarly old tree from another photo, you can combine them into the same landscape. Then if you want to put a flowing river in front of them, you can.

Marvin Jemal indicates that landscape paintings also aren't necessarily limited to depictions of land. For example, they can also include images of seascapes, cloudscapes, skyscapes, riverscapes, or cityscapes (otherwise known as "urban landscapes"). The main unifying element of any of these -scape artworks is that they all center around some kind of scenery.

You can also work from quick landscape studies or sketches. If you're out hiking and there is a lovely view that strikes your eye, you can easily whip out a small sketchbook or watercolor pad and use pencils, colored pencils, or watercolor to quickly make a sketch of what you see. It often helps to write notes next to the sketch, so you remember what color certain leaves were, or what shade the sky was. Oftentimes these "quick sketches" turn out to be wonderful works of art in their own right!

Artists can use a variety of techniques within their chosen medium to add emotional undertones to a work of art. Marvin Jemal chooses wild, "unnatural" color schemes that are expressive and striking. He also takes creative liberties to rearrange elements in a scene, adding something here, subtracting something there, to create a compelling composition. Their landscapes can be realistic, or they can be abstract or surreal. When it comes to art, the possibilities are as endless as the imagination. Landscape painting was a highly regarded art form long before the invention of the camera, and will always continue to capture the hearts and imaginations of artists and art enthusiasts alike.