February’s Landscaping Replacement: Landscape Art

The weather is frighteningly frigid and getting back to working the greenery in our yards feels such a long way away. While fewer of us are venturing out of our homes, much less getting to dig in the earth, there’s still a way of maintaining the peace that nature offers us – landscape art.

In addition to the curb appeal of having a beautiful blooming shrub in our front yard or a giant oak or maple in our backyard is that “Human beings are naturally drawn to vastness in scenery,” explains David Chang, Chair of the Department of Art and Art History at Florida International University. He is right. There are very few people who can look upon any one of Monet’s garden series without feeling the beauty of nature he captured.

Our advice to beat the February – no gardening for me blues – is to look at art for arts sake of for your spring gardening inspiration.

Here are a few landscape artists worth looking up:

 

Claude Monet
French painter and founder of abstract expressionism, Claude Monet is known for his paintings of water lilies and his own garden. He loved to paint the same scene many times, looking to capture the changing light and seasons.

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Thomas Cole

As a member of the Hudson River School, Thomas Cole created romantic portrayals of the vastness of nature, creating a sense of awe in its beauty.

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Camille Pissarro
Another French Impressionist, Pissarro was devoted to capturing a moment in nature instead of simply depicting it. Unlike many landscape artists, Pissarro’s work often included local peasants working within the landscape.

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Georgia O’Keefe

Georgia O’Keefe was one of the most important artists of the 20^th She’s best known for her paintings of large flowers and the New Mexico landscape that became her home after she left new York City.

Anselm Adams
Photographer Anselm Adams was a visionary in his patient approach to preserving the country’s beauty. Drawn to the beauty of nature’s monuments, he was a devoted environmentalist who establish photography as art in the early part of the 20^th

photographer Ansel Adams has been a visionary in his efforts to preserve this country’s wild and scenic areas, both on film and on Earth. Drawn to the beauty of nature’s monuments, he is regarded by environmentalists as a monument himself, and by photographers as a national institution. It is through his foresight and fortitude that so much of America has been saved for future Americans.”