John Hemmen { Art }
Landscape Paintings
Landscapes are celebrations of nature whether they are depicted romantically or disparagingly. For me, landscapes are an exercise in color and composition, air and light. How to make them flow, how to get you to see into the work and past the edges, that is the challenge.
Most of my landscapes have been inspired by my travels because my eyes are wide open when traveling and it is new landscapes I am seeing. The air, the light, the color, all that and more is registering, yet the composition is not yet there because traveling means moving on to the next place and many things are a wonderful blur. Yet static images imprint every day you travel. I close my eyes and see those images again, and if they are strong enough they stay to see again and again in memory. It is these images that form a basis for my landscapes.
Many of my landscapes were started when traveling and were done in oil pastel on paper. These works were smaller because small paper is easier to transport. As I have gotten more interested in landscape I have done more works in plain air or in the studio based on photographs or remembered scenes, and these works are done increasingly in oil for its more translucent effect. During the last 5 years I have been concentrating more on images around the northwest where I live.
Oil on canvas. 48x48
Oil on canvas. 30 x 40
40 x 30, oil on canvas