Landscape painting or landscape artwork, is the illustration of natural scenery, such as trees, rivers, mountains, valleys, forests and other scenes where the main subject is a wide view of nature. The natural world has always impacted the eye of artists, inspiring them to pick up a brush and draw the amazing scenery they see. In order to represent the beauty that artists’ eyes see, the artists try to capture that brief moment in space and time. Some artists do not need a real natural scenery to capture some breathtaking imaginary landscape paintings; they are so talented and skilled that a viewer feels the urge to literally walk right into a beautiful landscape masterpiece.
When painting a specific figure, the landscape background is very important. Sky is virtually included in any landscape painting, so it is safe to say that it’s one of the most important elements. The weather is a significant factor of the composition. The detailed landscape artwork is a main subject in many artistic traditions and they are developed when there is already a tradition of representing other subjects and types of artwork. Chinese art and Western painting are the two main traditions of landscape artwork, more than thousand years old. The popular spiritual element in landscape artwork originates from the beginnings in East Asian art, while they are exclusively included with Romanticism in the West art.
The earliest forms of landscape paintings were barely of what landscape artwork really is, although the basics were trees, mountains and other natural features included in the perfect scenery. The landscape artwork can either be entirely imaginary or copied from a real scenery with just slight differences or none at all. If the artist’s purpose of an artwork is to capture an actual place or scenery with all the features accurately included, this is known as a topographical view. These paintings are common in the West, where they are seen as interior to fine art landscape paintings. In the Chinese art, the landscape artwork usually depicts imaginary scenes.
In landscape artwork, any element can either be natural or man-made. The weather, the light and darkness, flora and fauna, all can be a significant or insignificant part or landscape paintings. Lack of form and colours can make a big difference in the artist’s perception of the nature and artwork. From the point view of the wide audience, there is a only small difference of the pictorial and the actual painting of the artist, depending on the skills and creativity. Painters can sometimes perfectly portray certain scenery the way it is, but sometimes they lack the ability to present the picture they have in their minds to the public.