CARLSON’S GUIDE TO LANDSCAPE PAINTING
by John F. Carlson
(Dover Publications, Mineola, New York)

Excerpt from Chapter 11: Composition—The Expressive Properties of Line and Mass

Across the Meadows by John F. Carlson, ca. 1935, oil, 18 x 24. Private collection. An arresting composition will immediately captivate the viewer’s attention, as does this 1935 landscape painting by John F. Carlson.

“The everyday elements in an out-of-door motif which arrest the cursory glance do so by containing something that interests us. We ought to analyze those interests and hold them firmly. Nature, by virtue of possessing light, space, sound and movement, presents to us out of this huge storehouse an abundance of interesting and compelling images. Were we to attempt to translate more than an aesthetic impression of these wonders with our limited means (paint and canvas), we would be lost indeed. …

“A picture may possess every attribute of good composition, decoratively speaking, and still not be significantly composed. It may be well arranged in color sequences, it may be well balanced in proportion and relation as to weights and values, it may contain an interesting variety of lines and shapes and mass, and be well modulated to its climax; it may be beautiful—it may be all these things, and yet it may not be expressive. …

“Too much reality in a picture is always a disappointment to the imaginative soul. We love suggestion and not hard facts. A picture should be music in form and color, with the subject-matter the vehicle. We must not imitate the externals of nature with so much fidelity that the picture fails to evoke that wonderful teasing recurrence of emotion that marks the contemplation of a work of art. …

“The difficulty of landscape painting lies in the fact that much study is required before the student can acquire enough accumulated experience or necessary knowledge to create. The fleeting effects of light bewilder him and he has difficulty getting anything on his canvas. With accrued knowledge will come a sense of instinct as to just how much liberty can be taken with nature.…”

COMPOSITION OF OUTDOOR PAINTING
by Edgar Payne
(DeRu’s Fine Arts, Bellflower, California)

Excerpt from Chapter 2: Selection and Composition

Laguna Coast by Edgar Payne, ca.1918, oil, 12 x 16. Private collection.  Image courtesy Edenhurst Gallery, Palm Desert, California. This image by Payne illustrates the concept of creating unity in a painting by allowing one feature to dominate and the others to support.

“Good composition is always determined by good selection. Fine painting is a matter of proper taste and judgment in choosing the motive, accepting some parts, discarding others, and making changes or alterations throughout the procedure. …

“When approaching nature for depiction the primary consideration is the station point which will give the best translation of the motive. To get a proper view and idea of any subject, one should study it from several angles. The idea is to locate the easel at a point which will reveal desirable variations, not only of the size of masses but quality in line, values and color. …

“In landscape, two or three large trees are all one needs to construct a powerful composition. A large mountain, a foreground with a few objects such as trees or rocks, a bit of sky, is material for the largest picture. Naturally, these are only a few examples; thousands of other suggestions are to be seen everywhere. …

“All painters of note realize the importance of simplicity in composition; the subordination of detail, consideration for artistic principles and requirements as well as a respect for outdoor form. …

“Learning to select and compose is largely a matter of self-discipline. Therefore, if the student is apt to be over-influenced by realism and is given entirely to seeking natural composition, he should force himself to practice rearrangement; while if he is inclined toward the other extreme of disregarding nature, he should make it a practice to seek natural compositions and study them closely. …

“Ruskin says, in as many words, that the great aim of composition is to create unity and that one feature should be the main interest and dominate all other interests or masses. Practically all other writers on art agree that this is the main principle in creating unified designs….”

THE ELEMENTS OF DRAWING
by John Ruskin
(Dover Publications, Mineola, New York)

Excerpt from Chapter 3: On Composition

Merton College by J.M.W. Turner, 1838, watercolor, 11 9/16 x 17. Collection Tate Gallery, London, England. Ruskin wrote often about Turner, lauding him as one of the greatest landscape painters of all time.

“Composition means, literally and simply, putting several things together, so as to make one thing out of them; the nature and goodness of which they all have a share in producing. Thus a musician composes an air, by putting notes together in certain relations; a poet composes a poem, by putting thoughts and words in pleasant order; and a painter a picture, by putting thoughts, forms, and colours in pleasant order. …

“Much more in a great picture; every line and colour is so arranged as to advantage the rest. None are inessential, however slight; and none are independent, however forcible. It is not enough that they truly represent natural objects; but they must fit into certain places, and gather into certain harmonious groups. …

“It seems to be appointed, in order to remind us, in all we do, of the great laws of divine government and human polity, that composition in the arts should strongly affect every order of mind, however unlearned or thoughtless. Hence the popular delight in rhythm and metre, and in simple musical melodies. But it is also appointed that power of composition in the fine arts should be an exclusive attribute of great intellect. …

“It follows, from these general truths, that it is impossible to give rules which will enable you to compose. … if it were possible to compose melody by rule, Mozart and Cimarosa need not have been born: if it were possible to compose pictures by rule, Titian and Veronese would be ordinary men. The essence of composition lies precisely in the fact of its being unteachable, in its being the operation of an individual mind of range and power exalted above others.…”

THE WATSON-GUPTILL HANDBOOK OF LANDSCAPE PAINTING
by M. Stephen Doherty
(Watson-Guptill Publications, New York, New York)

Excerpts from Chapter 3: Planning Your Approach and Chapter 12: Scale and Focus

Autumn at the Kent Baptist Church by M. Stephen Doherty, 2006, oil, 11 x 14. Collection the artist. Notice how there is as much interest in the background of this painting as there is in the foreground.

“The painter John Singer Sargent (1856-1925) is reported to have said that he could be dropped off at any location and he would be able to paint a decent landscape at the site. That may have been true of the extraordinarily gifted Mr. Sargent, but most artists spend a considerable amount of time walking through fields, hiking along trails, and driving down country roads and along scenic coastlines searching for the best combination of natural and manmade objects illuminated by the most interesting pattern of sunlight and shadow. …

“The amount of real estate you attempt to present within the borders of a painting will affect the manner in which it will be created, the amount of detailing required, and the compositional devices available to you. If you stand on top of a mountain next to a wide, narrow canvas, you’ll have to be content with broad horizontal bands or rapidly changing colors and values. If, on the other hand, you concentrate on a small flower garden planted between a sidewalk and a stone wall, your focus will be on the details of individual plants, rocks, and slabs of concrete.

“There are, of course, many occasions when you will be interested in presenting a wide expanse of space and the smaller objects in front of it. In those cases you’ll need to establish a dual focus to your painting so the background is as important as the foreground. To accomplish that, however, you will need to create compositional devices that link one area of interest with the other, and you’ll have to make sure the brushstrokes are consistent throughout the painting.

“If you are interested in the dramatic lighting effects across sky, water, and land, then you’ll want to paint panoramic views from high vantage points. When you are pulling together an expansive scene on one canvas, the initial drawing of the landscape on the canvas is particularly important because it establishes the scale necessary for including all the important elements of the scene. In some cases, sections of land must be shortened and distances reduced in order to create a balanced and convincing picture….”