29/03/2024 3:20 PM

Themonet-ART

Adorn your Feelings

12 Terri Ford Landscape Paintings That Reveal the Character of a Place

6 min read

[ad_1]

The best landscape paintings do more than recreate scenic views. Explore a showcase of Terri Ford’s multi-layered landscape paintings—and find out why she’s about to break all her own rules.

Terri Ford Landscape Paintings
Closeup of Dusk Cypress (11×14)

The art world is full of great renderers—painters who are skilled at copying photographs or nature, but whose work lacks spirit and originality. Terri Ford seeks a deeper connection, creating dynamic work that reveals the character and poetry of a place. Her personal approach generates paintings that are alive with the spirit and the rhythm of the site.

Having trained in illustration, Ford says she knows the difference between rendering and painting, even when working from photographic references.

“A really good work of art comes from the interaction of subject and the artist’s inner self. That’s quite different than putting down a mere pictorial record of a place or thing. There has to be an implied story—a mood or emotion present in the painting—for it to be successful as art.”

Capturing a Unique Perspective

Terri Ford’s prize-winning landscape painting Hidden Cove (below) was based on a photo taken while on a trip sponsored by the Catalina Island Conservancy, in California. The unusual perspective, as well as the subject, attracted her. “I really loved looking down and seeing the trees looming over the white sand,” she says. “It gave me a sense of privacy.”

Terri Ford Landscape Paintings: Hidden Cove
Hidden Cove (pastel on paper, 18×24)

Layered Perspectives

The artist has also been drawn to hilltop towns in France and Italy, where views from high points create interesting compositions. Rooftops fade into countryside and then into distant hills. Ford says, “I like painting layers of planes—foregrounds against midgrounds against distant backgrounds. There’s an infinite, almost dreamy aspect to these layered perspectives.”

Terri Ford Landscape Paintings: Cliffs of Moher
Cliffs of Moher (9×12)

In her interpretations of these inspiring landscapes, Ford likes to use color—and lots of it—to create vibrant, personal paintings. But it is Europe’s architecture—the way it offers glimpses into the past—that most inspire the artist.

Terri Ford Landscape Paintings: Steeples of Clifden
Steeples of Clifden (12×15)

Ford explains, “I feel connected to previous generations of artists when I stand painting at Pont Neuf in Paris. I almost have the sense that I am a visual historian, illustrating a point in time. As an artist I find this to be very satisfying. That timelessness found in older architecture and the rich character of these places is a gift to the artist.”

Cortona Bell Tower by Terri Ford
Cortona Bell Tower (12×9)

Closer to home, in California, Ford finds herself attracted to subjects that stir a sense of time’s passage. She says, “I often get a feeling of desperation when I see an old barn about to collapse. It’s as if by painting the old building I will give it immortality and keep its story from getting lost in time.”

Barn in Morning Light by Terri Ford
Barn in Morning Light (pastel, 11×14)

Using Compelling Composition

In Ford’s prize-winning painting Country Calm (below), the landscape has been carefully composed to sweep a viewer into the scene. The foreground fencing provides the entry point to pull in a viewer. From there, Ford’s compositional choices continue to direct. The presence of a tractor adds a note of bold color and a hint of intrigue.

Terri Ford Landscape Paintings: Country Calm
Country Calm (16×12)

Ford says, “What I really like are the things that create an entire spatial picture—little areas that show that there’s more beyond—like the opening that leads into the hills in the back. These things are the little sweet spots that I love to find in a scene. Having an inanimate object combined with nature creates a kind of nostalgia or intimacy. It’s almost like the tractor becomes a character with a story to tell.”

Related: A Stronger Landscape Composition May Be Just Over the Horizon

Mixing It Up with Striking Color

In making her color selections, Ford makes deliberate decisions to enliven and excite. Rather than selecting a “sky” blue, for example, she mixes a plum and turquoise to create a more interesting mix of warm and cool temperatures.

The practice is somewhat of a signature technique for Ford. She may overlap or scumble the colors in the sky, or leave them bumping up against one another, but she never blends them.

Terri Ford Landscape Paintings: Dusk Cypress
Dusk Cypress (11×14)

Similarly, when painting foliage, Ford thinks less about choosing “the right color” and more about promoting an interplay of value and temperature to add life, vibration, and depth.“People are always in search of the perfect green,” she says. “It’s the artist’s dilemma. At some point, I quit worrying about finding it. Now I have much more pleasure in the entire painting process.”

Related: Landscape Color Palette Secrets for Plein Air Painters

Behind Her Creative Process

Terri Ford Landscape Paintings: Morning Vista
Morning Vista (11×14)

On a typical painting day, Ford walks around an area, then picks a location that attracts her and starts painting. “When the light changes to a point that the scene suggests a different painting, I stop,” Ford says.

If the painting requires more work, she returns to the site another day at the same time to continue.

Cafe Alfresco by Terri Ford
Cafe Alfresco (9×12)

Ford believes that successful landscape painting is always dependent on good light and a strong shadow pattern. In good weather, she likes to paint early in the morning and later in the day. This allows her to take advantage of the more dramatic light, avoiding direct mid-day sun with its lack of shadow pattern.

Terri Ford Landscape Paintings: Afternoon Shadow
Afternoon Shadow (15×10)

Because Ford has traveled extensively as a pastel workshop teacher, much of her work features the scenery of faraway places. She recalls one 2006 trip through Europe. “It was October, and the fall days were hazy all the way from Tuscany to Venice. It was a real challenge, trying to depict that diffused atmosphere. To succeed with this was a truly satisfying experience for me.”

Florence Night by Terri Ford
Florence Night (6½x8½)

When Ford is unable to return to a scene, she captures photos and completes the paintings later in the studio.

“In Ireland, I found that the light was best in late afternoon, offering vibrant color and very clear air. I traveled with a driver, making brief stops at each location and taking one or two photos. Not ideal, but with the long distances between points, a camera was the answer. Later in the studio, the challenge of achieving the perfect combination of control and looseness in interpreting these scenes was interesting and enjoyable.”

Terri Ford Landscape Paintings: Ballydehob
Ballydehob (14×11)

What’s Next for Terri Ford?

There’s no doubt that Terri Ford has accomplished many things throughout her career. She has earned countless awards and honors, is a highly respected and sought-after instructor, and has reached Eminent Pastelist status in the International Association of Pastel Societies and the Master Pastelist distinction in the Pastel Society of America.

Now, Ford is on a journey of discovery, seeking to expand and deepen her connection with the pastel medium. Although her “tried and true” formula has been successful, she’s ready to take a risk with a new approach.

Terri Ford recently demonstrated her new approach to pastel—no underpainting required. See how to join the next event.

In our latest Illuminate event, Ford discussed her use of experimentation to unlock unknown potential in her work. She walked through a brief demonstration to show the new approach she’s trying out, which eliminates the underpainting. Keep an eye out for the recording, then use the techniques you learn in your own practice to discover brand new horizons!

About Terri Ford

A native Californian and alumnus of the Academy of Art College, Terri Ford realized a deep connection with pastels in 1987. Since then, she has worked with them in both in the studio and en plein air. Her paintings are representational with some more impressionistic and others more realistic. Ford’s greatest inspiration is capturing the landscape in its ever changing light and conditions. Her work has earned her top awards in many exhibitions and her pastels have been featured in several top publications. Learn more and explore her work at terrifordart.com.


You Might Also Like:

7 Ways to Get Your Compositions Right the First Time

Painting with Pastels: Combining Pattern, Color, and Form

Into the Woods With Pastel and Graphite

All Pastel Articles

[ad_2]

Source link

themonetpaintings.org | Newsphere by AF themes.