Coloured Mud

This week is time for a little fun as I am swamped with my first full week of teaching and I have very little time or energy to devote to a more meaningful essay.

Since I generally consider myself mainly a landscape painter I feel eminently qualified to break down the top ten landscape painters of all time with a short synopsis why I think them thus (and an image or two of a great work by each) This kind of list might not generate the furor induced by top 10 fashion blunders but hopefully someone beyond the sound of my own pecking on the keyboard will get a kick out of it. (list to be used for recreational purposes only)

1. JMW Turner – Still the best. 20,000 plus works helps. He uses landscape as a vehicle for color, space and crazy mark making and represents the sublime and romantic ideals that defined his era to a T. Stop in New Haven, CT at the British art center if you want to see what I mean. Also look at his later sketches to truly understand his mastery. Click here for more Turner.

   

    

2. George Inness – Pushing Turner in recent years for the top spot. I didn’t understand his work that well when I was younger but if you sit and stare at his work and let your eyes adjust like waiting in a dark room, wonderful things emerge. Held back from the top spot because his work is sometimes a letdown in person compared to reproductions. Click here for more Inness.

   

    

3. Anselm Kiefer – How can he not be considered a landscape painter? You feel pretty small and humbled in the presence of his lead splattered enormous works. Size gets him huge bonus points for having the guts to work so large and bold. Click here for more Kiefer.

   

4. Monet – Skip the coffee table book stuff and dive into his giant water lily masterworks. I like to be challenged by artwork and if you stand in front of these giant paintings for 20 minutes you’ll be challenged and rewarded. See also; cathedrals! Mostly poster sites online.

   

    

5. Andrew Wyeth – A recent trip to the Brandywine Museum in Chads Fords reminded me how stunning his work can be. His sense of abstract design coupled with an unbelievable attention to detail and a facility that is quite simply maddening puts him bravely on this list. Take a trip to The Brandywine Museum in Chads Fords, PA. Not many images easily seen online.

   

6. Bunny Harvey – I saw a show of hers at the RISD Museum when I was a student and that was all I needed. Contemporary flavor with graceful flair for tradition makes for a potent combination. Click here for more Harvey.

   

7. Horace Pippin – A little known self taught “folk” artist in the vein of Grandma Moses. Not exclusively a landscape painter but his work resonates with such an incredible sincerity its hard not to be moved by them. Very hard to see in person because his pieces are rarely shown in the big museums but they should be. Click here for more Pippin.

   

8. Sargent – See watercolors. Pick jaw up off the ground. Wipe drool from chin and wonder why he did all those sickly sweet and boring (but flashy) portraits. Laugh out loud because he’s better at watercolor than you’ll ever hope to be. Click here for more Sargent and look at 1910-1920.

   

    

9. May Stevens – I saw her work in a show at the Boston MFA and in the vein of Anselm Kiefer her scale is intense as is her unique approach of word and image. Very hard to find images of her work online.

   

    

10. Emil Nolde – Surprised? Very little know are his watercolor landscapes done in secret during the Nazi regime which forbade him from making art. They seem to capture the intense joy that must have been had in their secret creation. Click here for more Nolde.

    

     

• Honorable Mentions; Cezanne, Hopper, Homer, Diebenkorn