Lashes of Sunlight
From the time that I attended classes at M.F. Kousal’s studio, I have been attracted to landscape painting. Since those lessons, I have painted landscape from many corners of the world. Often the scene was merely a background for some animal, or activity by people, that was the main focus. In this painting near Belfountain, Ontario, the only player is the sunlit landscape itself.
From the time that I was a teenager and attended classes at M.F. Kousal's studio, I have been attracted to landscape painting. Since those lessons forty years ago, I have painted landscape from many corners of the world. Often the scene was merely a background, while animal or human activity was the main focus. This painting shows the West Credit River near Belfountain, Ontario. Stone from a nearby quarry was used for the construction of the Ontario Parliament Buildings.
Although this area is known as a beauty spot, in this piece I don't want to paint a scene. I want to paint what light is doing to the landscape. This view without the shafts of sun would, in my opinion, be quite uninteresting. On this point, I part company with many artists among them Alex Colville, a Magic Realist, whose paintings are mainly flatly lit, showing no directional light. Those artists seem more interested in the subject itself.
From composition to colour and technique, painting is as personal as your toothbrush. All that an artist produces proceeds from his personality. The technical devices of painting may be complicated but can be learned. The key ingredient for any artist is his point of view.