Artist Research

EDWARD HOPPER is one American painter that I particularly like. Not all of his paintings are landscapes necessarily, but they often have a lot of landscape characteristics. Take "Nighthawks", perhaps his most famous painting (I have a poster of this one hanging in my room). What I like about Hopper's work is the point of view, or the opinion, that he gives the audience. One really feels as though they are looking into this diner at night when no one is around but the few regulars who have no where else to be. This is more of a "scene" than a landscape in my opinion but shares many qualities with landscape painting such as placement and form, and the basic premise is still to capture a scene.

Although Hopper worked primarily in oils, he was equally masterful as a watercolorist and printmaker. Most often his work falls under the movement of Realism, portraying America through his eyes. Here are two other paintings by Hopper. Note his use of dramatic lighting to create an interesting and captivating scene.

   

FREDERIC EDWIN CHURCH is a second American landscape artist in whose work i can find inspiration. His dramatic use of light creates an ambience, or mood associated with the painting. Church painted mostly in the mid 19th Century, and most of his paintings are categorized today under the American Luminism movement. Similar to impressionism, luminism's primary focus is on the use of light in each painting and how it affects or changes the scene.  Here is a famous painting by Church that exemplifies the luminist ideal:

Here are a few other examples of Church's paintings, both painted on trips to South America:

    

THOMAS COLE is a final artist that inspires me. In particular, one series of paintings that he completed in 1840 I think applies very well to this project and helped me generate my idea for my final print. This series is called "The Voyage of Life" and depicts a person traveling by boat down the river of life from infancy to youth to manhood to old age. This is a series of four paintings that I have known about for a long time and seen in person at the National Gallery. I also have small prints of each painting in my room. Each painting depicts a scene with a different mood to the stage of life. This mood is generated again through use of light, but when viewed together the audience has a distinct sense of traveling from one painting to the next. Here are the four paintings, in order from infancy to old age:

Here is another article about the Voyage of Life: 

http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1026/is_n1_v151/ai_19191876/

Wiki also does a good job of explaining the allegory:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Voyage_of_Life