What Is A Landscape?

''Landscape comprises the visible features of an area of land, including the physical elements of landforms, water bodies such as rivers, lakes and the sea, living elements of land cover including indigenous vegetation, human elements including land uses, buildings and structures, and transitory elements such as lighting and weather conditions".

Combining both their physical origins and the cultural overlay of human presence, often created over millennia, landscapes reflect the living synthesis of people and place vital to local and national identity. Landscapes, their character and quality, help define the self image of a region, its sense of place that differentiates it from other regions. It is the dynamic backdrop to people’s lives.'' (Source: Wikipedia)

I realised it was important to go back to basics and find out what a landscape was in its most basic form so I first looked at John Constable. He pioneered the painting of British landscapes around 1800, the basic structure of his painting was the use of a background, middle ground and then a foreground encapturing a romantic scene.

Here is an example of his work:

While looking at Constables work and the way he created his paintings I thought I would create my own landscape with a modern touch and encorperating monochrome which I had looked at before:

I then looked at Joseph Turner another British painter around the same time. He used the same principles of Constable but focused on lighting as a major issue. His paintings encorporated more exciting events and have a much more modern touch to them. Here is an example:

While being quite moved by Turners work after researching him I decided to go a step further by looking at Japanese landscapes which seemed to break all conventions seen in Constable and Turners work. I liked the sketches because they had a more three dimensional look to them and have started thinking about a way that I could create the same type of image with a camera. Here is an example of Japanese landscape: