Landscapes focus on natural scenes, from close-ups of plants and gardens, to trees on a hill, to farmland, to broad vistas and the skies above. Any architecture present is de-emphasized or presented within the context of the surrounding land.

Artists might choose to paint/draw landscapes in order to spend time in appreciation of nature, allowing a deep connection with life to be experienced through the prolonged contemplation of a scene.

Artists might choose a particular vantage point because of its beauty, its drama, its ugliness (perhaps devastated by misuse or natural disaster), its agricultural aspects, or simply because it lends itself to aesthetic expression, allowing the artist to emphasize abstract shapes, mark making, distortions, palette exploration, etc.

Featured: Field of Poppies by Gustav Klimt.