Thoughts on Landscape Painting
The world we live in is a fascinating subject of inquiry. The interaction between the land and its inhabitants is woven into a colourful tapestry. This cultural landscape invites scholars and artists alike to participate in the creative quest. I am a geographer and an aspiring landscape painter. Geography and landscape painting share a common concern - the study of the relationship between people and environment.
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Our planet earth reveals itself as a challenging destination, a constant joy to the eyes, where my acquired skills can be mobilized in an attempt to capture the landscape as the stage of human life. If one wants to learn anything, and art in particular, educational resources are available at every turn. But, for me, the greatest teacher for landscape painting is the landscape itself. Constantly changing in appearance, it is there always for us to appreciate its attributes and learn from them. For me, landscape painting elicits appreciation of natural processes, reflection on the historical past, and awareness of the potentialities of human action embodied in each place. The images presented in the gallery were chosen or prepared from paintings and field sketches made at a variety of sites and on different occasions around the world.
Hiroshi Shimazaki
Geographer Artist