Landscape Painting: Essential Concepts and Techniques for Plein Air and Studio Practice by Mitchell Albala

Look Inside! Preview several pages at Amazon

Available wherever books are sold. Order online through Amazon

Book Review by Erica Perloff, The Pastel Society of the West Coast

While browsing at my favorite local bookstore recently, I noticed Mitchell Albala's book Landscape Painting: Essential Concepts and Techniques for Plein Air and Studio Practice. My husband thought he had found the perfect stealth birthday present for me, and was clearly disappointed when I paid and walked out of the store with it a few minutes later. I knew I had to have it.

After reading through it for a few hours, I quickly realized that any aspirations I had for someday writing the quintessential book on landscape painting have been forever dashed. It's been done folks. This will be my new "go to" book for explaining difficult concepts while teaching, reminding me of concepts I've forgotten, and inspiring me when I need a creative jolt.

Albala is a landscape painter who teaches at Gage Academy of Art in Seattle. His work ranges from semi abstract to realistic, very atmospheric urban and rural northwestern landscapes. Oh, and did I mention that he is an oil painter? Never mind. Pastelists who paint the landscape both en plein air or in the studio will benefit from this book, and be inspired by the gorgeous paintings by Albala and the more than 40 other contemporary and historic painters used to demonstrate various concepts. The book is also laced with juicy quotations from many artists, giving one a lot to ponder. I can honestly say that just leafing through this book has cured me of the January doldrums.

In the introduction, Albala states that the book is meant to take the reader through a series of essential practices which he has cultivated over time to deal with the challenges of landscape painting. These include site selection, value relationships, simplification of forms, composition, light and color and abstraction, as well as sections on technique and materials. You can look at the table of contents here: I found the sections on site selection, composition, and light and color particularly relevant for the pastel artist.

Beginning painters often dive into a landscape painting without recognizing the scene's inherent pitfalls. Albala's section on working with problem subjects and using spatial cues (volume, scale, overlap and perspective) will help even the experienced landscape painter choose or adapt scenes in nature so that they lend themselves better to paintings. He provides an excellent treatment on using perspective and dimension when painting the sky.

Designing a painting through strong composition is key to its success. Albala discusses the overlap of the narrative content of a painting with its underlying design. He uses photographs and diagrams, as well as references to masters of the art such as Edgar Payne to help explain the concepts. Although this is a subject that has been well covered by many authors, Albala's concise chapter provides a clear distillation that makes a handy reference.

In the section on Light and Color, Albala covers the basics of color theory but also spends a good deal of time discussing color strategies. Often, landscape painters rely entirely on the color scheme that nature provides, rather than developing strategies to make it work better for them. He offers good advice on the "challenge of green," which is very relevant to the pastel painter. He goes on to cover how value affects color identity, color harmonies, and the differences between naturalistic and expressive color, and ends with one of my favorite quotes by Henri Matisse: "A thimbleful of red is redder than a bucketful."

I was also very interested in Albala's chapters on using photo references and on abstracting from nature. He shows how an artist can use a photo for inspiration and then take the painting far beyond the original photo, in short, how to use the photo like an artist. He goes on to give suggestions for how to be faithful to a landscape while taking it to a more abstract level, through such techniques as limited focus, extreme simplification and expressive mark-making.

While researching Albala and his work, I discovered that he has created a companion blog for the book. I started clicking my way through it and was soon overcome by the wealth of information provided: videos, step by step lessons, painting demonstrations and student examples on many subjects for the landscape painter. Each lesson links to other artists whose work is worth studying. After an hour there were so many tabs open on my browser that I could scarcely remember where I started. I came away from both the book the computer ready to pack up my easel, go outside and get back to work.

Hint: My husband will gladly take suggestions for other great birthday gifts for the pastel artist. Reviewed by Erika Perloff