A profound connection with place has guided all of the major moves in my life. I fell head over heels for the lush greenness of the Pacific Northwest on a road trip and was soon packing up my New York City apartment, and heading to Oregon. After 10 years there, and thoroughly water-logged, I had an epiphany on the ledge of a red rock canyon in the Southwest, and knew it was time to dry out my moldy bones in the desert. A craving for the mountains, rivers and lakes led to a brief, but passionate love affair with Montana that ended when the prospect of a fourth winter sent me hightailing it back to Arizona. I’m still here, having realized that this place, with its particular beauty, is where my heart resides.
Putting together this issue of American Art Collector, which contains our annual Collector’s Focus dedicated to the art of landscape painting, really got me thinking about the power of place, and how we can all relate to the feeling of being moved by the beauty of the natural world.
The September issue is an ode and testament to the bottomless well of inspiration American artists have found in the landscape since the Hudson River School artists of the mid-19th century began seeing, and depicting, nature through the grandiose lens of romanticism. In these pages you will see alpine vistas as majestic as those by Thomas Cole and Thomas Moran; but you will also find many quiet, intimate scenes encountered during daily morning walks. Other pieces were inspired during painting trips abroad, transporting us to the lavender field in Provence where the artist had set up their easel; a fishing village in Italy; the emerald coast of Croatia; and even the Indian desert.
There is a big show in Easton, Maryland, this month, featuring work by the Washington Society of Landscape Painters (Page 74), and this issue also includes our Art Lover’s Guide to Washington, D.C. and the Mid-Atlantic States (Page 88), so you will see a lot of art celebrating the natural beauty of this diverse region by some of its top and most devoted artists. Landscape paintings are windows into the world, but they are also windows into each artist and what moves them.
To borrow a sentiment from the Washington Society of Landscape Painters, the September issue provides “a rare opportunity to see the landscape through [dozens of] distinct voices, each preserving something fleeting, beautiful and worth remembering.”
Sarah Gianelli
Managing Editor
sgianelli@americanartcollector.com
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