Landscape #3: Emotive Landscape

I do intend to revisit my Cubist landscape from Lesson 2 of the Pamela Allen series workshop, but went ahead and plunged into Lesson 3 yesterday.  The purpose of this online workshop is to interpret a chosen subject using four different interpretations.  This week's study is Expressionism.  How do you convey a mood or emotion in a piece of art?

Well, this artist did it rather effectively!
 

The Scream, Edward Munch

There are many ways to achieve a certain mood, one of which is color.  Light and bright often equals happy, as in this lovely seaside painting by Monet;

The Garden at Sainte-Adresse, Claude Monet


 
 Dark colors can be foreboding, threatening, or just plain depressing.

  

The Potato Eaters, Vincent Van Gogh


How about this one?  Not exactly warm and fuzzy.   Not only is the subject old, blind, underfed and dressed in rags...the blue tone adds to the depressive mood of this painting.

The Old Guitarist, Pablo Picasso

For my expressive landscape art quilt, I decided the subject would be an old abandoned barn.  There are many of these in the Ashe County mountains where we have our cabin, as well as throughout North Carolina as family farms are abandoned and development encroaches.  This photo is of the barn across the road from our cabin.  It belonged to my brother-in-law's late grandfather.

Here is the composition I created as a "melancholy" landscape.

The barn has weathered gray boards that are leaning at odd angles.  Kudzu vines are starting to take over.  The old fence is falling apart.  There is an empty garden with nothing but a dead plant.  The dark hill behind the ban looks threatening, as does the stark leafless tree.

This is a fascinating workshop that is stretching my artistic abilities!