Personal Viewscapes

About Painting Special Places

We all have our favorite landscapes, special places that speak to us and give us pleasure. Perhaps it is an often visited vacation spot, or a place that evokes fond memories. Maybe it is the landscape of a once in a lifetime trip with memories just as vivid as the day you were there. For many of us our favorite landscape is right in our own backyards....it is the view from our own porch or deck or dock that gives us the most comfort.
We probably all have photos of our favorite landscapes but sometimes photos don't do our special place justice. Everyday snapshots can't always capture the emotions of a place. My goal as a landscape painter is to create a painting that evokes the emotions I felt when viewing that landscape. I feel I am successful when my paintings to speak to the viewer and creates a desire to want to visit the place in my painting. I enjoy painting my own favorite viewscapes but also the personal favorites of others. I have had the opportunity to paint the views from many beautiful areas of our country and wish to capture many more personal viewscapes.
This blog is my portfolio of special landscapes that I have painted. Be sure to click on the links at the right to see more paintings. I welcome commissions to paint your personal favorite landscapes.

Savannah Marsh Commission 12x36 pastel

This is one of the largest marsh pastels I have painted and the scale just doesn't come across in this photo. This is the view from my client's backyard! What a wonderful view!

Commission Work in Progress

I am working with a family on a large 18x36 marsh commission. My usual procedure is to talk to the client about what they would like for the painting. In this case they had chosen a few of my marsh paintings that they liked and we discussed the changes they wanted. My next step is to do a few quick studies to show them. This way we can work out composition and colors before I commit to the big paper. In this case, they wanted a blue sky with clouds, more water and greener marsh grasses. You can see in the photo I have prints of the paintings they liked on the left and my three 4x6 studies on the right.

5x7 Studies for a Commission

I have been commissioned to paint this wonderful view. This is a dream come true commission for me...one of my favorite things to paint! Usually for a commission I will do a few small studies to give the client a choice and allow us to work out the details before I start on the final painting. In this case I had quite a few photos of this scene to work from so I did three 5x7 studies in which I tried to capture a different mood of the scene....a moody gray day, sunset with the marsh grasses illuminated by the setting sun, and twilight when the sky was pink and color was gone from the marsh. I also showed them a sunrise view that I posted here a few days ago. I wonder what they will decide? What is your choice? The painting they chose is the image at the top of this page. It is a 16x20 pastel on board.