Things of artistic interest

What is distance in paintings and why is it necessary? This discussion is aimed primarily at landscape/plein air painting but it has value in almost any figurative art. Distance is a term used to describe the visual sense of actual 3 dimensional depth in a 2 dimensional/flat surface. Note that I said the visual sense, it is only a mirage a “tromp le oil” (trick with oil paint). The artist must work hard to create and preserve this “distance”. It is necessary so those who look at your landscape painting can feel as if there is an atmosphere, a reality and sense that there are things in the foreground and middle ground and background in other words depth in a painting that exists only on the surface of the canvas. The creation of depth where none actually exists is what makes a painting come to life it is what draws a viewer into the imaginary distance that the artist created. How many times have you looked at a well drawn scene in a painting that has seemed flat and on one plane? It does not come easy and it does not come naturally it takes hard work and knowledge of what creates depth in a painting. Notice I said “in” a painting and not “on” a painting because if you are thinking correctly about the painting it should be seen as having depth. It must be said here that since the subject you are painting has actual depth you can perceive that depth because of the values, color and contrast that are in the scene. If you correctly see these and correctly paint them then you will have captured the scene and without any other effort created that d/d.(distance/depth) The problem for many is that it is difficult to do that all of the time so you need to be certain that you have accurately included the necessary tools that will make the d/d appear natural to the painting. We will cover a number of topics that will help you to create depth and distance in a painting. 1. What are the 3 primary types of depth we can create a. Value b. Color c. Contrast 2. How to create distance/depth with Value 3. How to create d/d with Color 4. How to create d/d with Contrast 5. What are some secondary methods/tricks for creating depth

• Overlap
• Perspective
• Focus

We will cover these topics in up coming blog posts. Tell your friends to sign up for the email list and get the blogs. I believe there is something fro everyone no matter what level you are. Enjoy!