Landscape Mentors

"The natural world is constant inspiration for me."

i'm trying to paint a stone wall right now - so hard!

As my first official post, since we're working on being able to paint landscapes, I decided to find a landscape painter to be my mentor. Like Smitty suggested, just googling "landscape painters" brought up some pretty good results; I was looking for someone whose work I really liked that I had never heard of before! My mentor this week is Joseph McGurl.
Joseph McGurl is a really talented landscape painter. His paintings use shadow and light so perfectly it looks like a photo, but his pictures still look artistic. The detail in his paintings is amazing, but it's the color, composition, lighting, and different areas of emphasis that make his works stand out to me. Also, I love the subjects he uses; his landscapes, though my favorites are the seascapes, range from European country to boats under sail.

love the contrast!

love the shadow in the background and light on the water!

I used to love realism, it's not my favorite type of work anymore. However, McGurl is definitely a realist. His use of realism is impressive, but by looking around his website, what I liked most was the page describing him as an artist. He loved art, and took classes in Boston, as a teenager. His artist's statement (linked above) was really interesting to read! Also, I loved how much he respected the skill, and drawing ability (my favorite!) of all artists and looked for inspiration everywhere around him, from people and nature. He also said that all his paintings were done from, often, sketches of the places before he painted them; I liked to read that professional artists like to sketch first, because that's what I like to do too!

Amazing lighting!

I like the perspective (and space!)

"These paintings are about the study of light, space, and color interpreted through paint." 

  three of my favorite elements and principles!