What defines a landscape? When we think of landscape, what comes to mind? A beautiful hillside? A cultivated garden? Or a painting? A closer look at the word’s origin reveals the following:
The term landscape comes from:
landshaft — German
landshap — Dutch
landskip — English
lendh2– open land, heath, prairie; skep– to cut, scrape, to hack, form, creation (<“cutting”): shape.
To form, cut, or otherwise shape the land.
Uffington White Horse
Image source: Wikipedia
If the literal translation is used, then a beautiful example is the prehistoric Iron Age Uffington White Horse in Berkshire Downs, England. Over 350 feet long, the image of a stylized horse was deeply cut into the hillside some 3,000 years ago and the incised area filled with chalk. To this day, local residents maintain the crisp imagery by refilling the original trench cuts with fresh chalk.
Open land + creation
La Strada Giu’
Plein air oil on canvas
La Strada Su
Plein air oil on canvas
Il Monumento
Plein air oil on canvas
Landscape painting is a creation by an artist’s relationship to the land, either directly or indirectly. After many years of plein air painting, I noticed a theme emerge in my choice of landscape subject matter; virtually all the imagery depicts views of the land with either roads or agricultural fields cut into it; a ubiquitous example of human’s relationship with nature.