Why Paint the Landscape?

When I was a young artist I hardly ever drew the landscape. I was fascinated with drawing people, their figures and faces.

There were a few times I went after the landscape in the 80's. I had an instructor for a short time in oil painting. And, I did a series of drawings of oak trees also. There was also some commercial illustrations that I did of various points of interest in California.

 "Daybreak" Size 8x10 by M Francis McCarthy

But this hardly detracted from my constant work at the human form. I was driven to master all the aspects of figure drawing and I practiced it constantly.

So, why did I become a landscape painter then? Why not paint people instead?

 "Daybreak" Size 5x7 by M Francis McCarthy

I guess I always knew in my heart that one day I'd be a landscape painter. When I was younger I'd cast my mind into the future and sometimes the idea of being a landscape painter would strike me. The idea always felt right. Like a comfortable pair of old jeans.

Because it felt right I could also find lot's of reasons that I'd like to do it. Some of the reasons to become a landscape painter that I was attracted to were:

• I like the idea of creating an independent artwork. A painting stands on it's own and moves were it's wanted.
• Landscape painting is the purest way (next to abstract art) to convey and create emotions with art. Because there are no people in it, a landscape painting is totally open to the viewer. They can occupy and enjoy the space that's been created by the artist with few barriers.
• Landscape painting is classic. I'm connected to a tradition stretching back hundreds of years. This gives me support as a painter as I add my own interpretation of the landscape to the body of paintings that have gone before me.
• I thought landscape painters made good money. Some do, and one day I will as well. The ability to create without dealing with editorializing by a committee or art director is absolutely awesome either way.
• I want to be involved in something that has some permanence. Good paintings accomplish this, working in something like bronze would be even better. Paintings on good wood panels will do though.
• Landscape painting is fun. It is...

Guess that's enough for now. Thought it would be nice to lighten things up after my last two posts. I love Art and I love painting the landscape. I've said it before but I'm lucky to have such work and I do my best to create paintings that are worthy of the time spent creating them.

Cheers,

A bit about "Daybreak". I'm showing both the small oil sketch version and the larger 8x10 here. The differences are interesting. You wouldn't think that a jump in size of only double would be much different but the 5x7 size is far more restrictive when it comes to detail and brushwork.

I do scale up my brush sizes as I increase my paintings size. I like to work with a brush that's slightly too big. I written about why in several blog posts.

The inspiration for these paintings came from a trip my wife and I made to Kauai Hawaii. This outcropping of trees was at the end of the freeway that goes around two thirds of the island. Though the inspiration is a Hawaiian scene. Like all of my paintings it could be anywhere. What I try to paint is the reality just below the surface. You could call it the spiritual landscape.