For the last couple months I’ve been making studies of famous artists’ landscapes. I found the exercise to be really fun and each study I did provided me with great insights into techniques I can use in my own work. It’s really nice to get out of my own headspace for an afternoon and study how some of my favorite paintings were made.
At first, I wondered if I should try to make my version look as close to original as possible, but I realized that if I really focused on making an exact replica, I’d lose the spirit of the painting and just be caught up in unimportant details. So instead, I gave myself a few hours to make each one, focusing on getting the general gist of the painting and being open to what unexpected techniques I might discover along the way.
For me, the value of the paintings was the experience in making them, not in having them, so I’m going to make a few of my studies available starting this Sunday in the hopes of finding some new loving homes for them. You can see and read about my experience making these works below:
The painting above is a study I did of Egon Schiele’s Einzelne Häuser. Like so many people, I’m amazed by Schiele’s skill. Reportedly, Egon Schiele asked his idol Gustav Klimt during their first meeting, "Do I have talent?" Klimt looked through his portfolio and responded, "Talent? Yes! Much too much!" Schiele’s style is so simple and accessible that I’m still not sure I understand how he got there.
In the work I studied, Einzelne Häuser, I love how Schiele breaks up the picture plane with long horizontal stripes and a beautiful patchwork of colorful squares in the center that make up the house. There’s also no blue or white or any color that allows you to mentally escape or breathe. Instead the sky and earth are painted with a dirty yellow wash with a house the pallet of a harlequin’s outfit. The painting is both colorful and muted, cute and haunting. I love how his paintings capture and combine both emotions so well.
Original painting: Einzelne Häuser by Egon Schiele
Above is my study of Cityscape #1 by Richard Diebenkorn. Similar to Schiele’s painting, this work has an amazing jigsaw puzzle quality to it with its interlocking shapes. Unlike Scheile’s painting, Diebenkorn’s painting has a thin band of blue sky at the very top of the picture. Both Diebenkorn’s and Schiele’s work flatten the landscape in a really clever way, making the backgrounds feel just as interesting as the foreground.
Original painting: Cityscape #1 by Richard Diebenkorn
I love Chaïm Soutine’s wonderfully twisted buildings and abstract landscapes. The painting above is a study I did of Soutine’s painting Paysage. Although his work is over a 100 years old, I think his style has feels very contemporary. I can see a lot of Soutine’s techniques in more modern work by Richard Diebenkorn’s landscapes and Willem de Kooning’s abstract paintings. Landscape painting is a great genre for articulating complicated emotions and I think Soutine found a way to beautifully communicate through the medium. His distorted views are a reminder to me of how emotions can warp our perceptions about the world around us.
Paysage by Chaïm Soutine
Vue de Céret is the second Soutine painting I made a study of. I feel like I could keep doing studies of his work and learn something with each one. I love the expressive, chaotic vibe of this work and painted it like it was a giant pile of multi-colored spaghetti. Even though it looks like a spontaneous mess, I actually think the composition of this painting is really great and in many ways is just as thoughtful as Diebenkorn’s very analytical looking paintings.
View of Céret by Chaim Soutine
Last but not least, my first love, Vincent van Gogh. My painting is 10 x 8 inches, much smaller than the original and for that reason the details of the tree are much simpler. In copying this painting, I learned just how out-there Van Gogh’s color selection really is. Had I not copied this painting I never would have believed you could make a successful landscape with lime-green, black, yellow, white and a dark blue. It’s a color palette I’d only use for an energy drink label. But it works. I also appreciate the simplicity in his color selection and his less is more strategy. Also this being said, I have a suspicion that the photo of the painting I was using was tinted a bit more yellow than the actual painting. Regardless, I was inspired by the photo and really enjoy thinking about color from a more unconventional way - especially when it comes to landscape painting which can sometimes veer towards being more conventional.
Vincent van Gogh - Chestnut Trees in Blossom 1890
I hope you enjoyed my studies! You can take a look at more of my original works using the link below and be sure to go to here to see my newly available works this Sunday!