Lay of the Land

"Field Study"
Oil on Linen
(c) Lesley Powell 2019
(SOLD)

An art purveyor told me recently that her clients liked landscapes that were "ambiguous". She said that ambiguity allowed her clients to imagine the scene to be anywhere they wanted it to be. I was a bit taken aback, because I invest a great deal of myself in painting landscapes that are very specific--landscapes that immediately inform the viewer whether it is morning or afternoon, hot or cold, windy or calm. Landscapes that you feel you can walk into and breathe the air of.  Landscapes that tell you just how far away that mountain range is. Landscapes that trigger a gasp of recognition.

"Atmospheric Hills"
7 x 14, Oil on Linen
(c) Lesley Powell 2019

But. As I reflected further on the art dealer's comment, I concluded that she might simply have used the wrong word. I would prefer to say that the landscape is "universal". In fact, it is the universality of the land that makes it something we can all relate to. We are all creatures of the earth, all gravity bound, all oriented to a certain horizon line. We all breathe the air, feel the breeze, smell the rain, hear the rustle of the leaves. We all feel the warmth of the sun, and the cool of the shadow.

"Road to Petaluma"
18 x 18, Oil on Linen
(c) Lesley Powell 2019

These universal aspects of the landscape are ones I try to capture in my paintings. The land has a gesture, or movement, just as a person does. To paraphrase Kimon Nicolaides, the clouds in the sky are practically all movement, reflecting the movement of the wind. Roads move up over hills, and down into valleys. This sense of movement is universal, whether the landscape is at the coast or in the mountains. 

"Two Fields"
9 x 16, Oil on Linen
(c) Lesley Powell 2019

I'm illustrating this post with images of some recent landscapes that are part of my "Earth, Water & Sky" collection. Hope you can see a bit of the universal in them...

Close to "Home"

"Just Down the Road"
8 x 8, Oil on Linen
(c) Lesley Powell 2019

On the recent painting trip to Provence, my husband and I stayed in a tiny hamlet in the countryside of the Luberon. The valley there is dotted with small settlements of just a few families. Such a little group of houses is often called a "hameau", or hamlet.

During the heat wave, I would get started early in the morning, while the temperatures were still cool (well, at least they were cool-er!). To save time and energy, I would often set up my easel just down the road from our rental house. I painted several scenes in our own little hamlet--which turns out to be a wonderful way to meet the neighbors! 

"Road Shadows"
12 x 9, Oil on Linen
(c) Lesley Powell 2019

Everyone was fascinated that I would paint his street or her house. One fellow told me that there were far more glamorous and eye-catching things to paint nearby, like lush lavender fields, or sunflower fields. I don't speak enough French to explain that I was looking for shapes of light and dark, rather than a particular subject--and that it's way more fun to take a plebeian scene and make a beautiful painting out of it, than to take a gorgeous scene and try to rival nature's own beauty.

"Gated House"
16 x 10, Oil on Linen
(c) Lesley Powell 2019

One of the amazing things about plein air painting is that the painter absorbs so much of the environment during the painting process. Neurologically, there is something about the heightened awareness involved in painting that causes sounds and smells to become permanently a part of your consciousness of the moment. In fact, I really enjoy hearing all the local noises when I am painting. On this trip I even joked that I should name my paintings for the sounds I heard while painting them, which are indelibly etched in my mind: "Glee Club Practice ('Come to the Cabaret')"; "Mowing the Hayfield"; "Bullfrogs Splashing", "Game of Boules", etc.  And I'm not kidding!

"Pink House"
16 x 8, Oil on Linen
(c) Lesley Powell 2019

I also ventured pretty far off road to paint some landscapes--devoid of human structures, these are pure earth and sky. They'll be coming up in a future post...stay tuned...