In Landscape Lesson 3 we take a look at more contemporary interpretations of landscape art through three different approaches to working with the land as well as learn to analyse artworks using a framework. ​

Contemporary Interpretations of the Landscape

1. MACRO MICRO: John Wolesley
John Wolesley is a British artist who lives and works in Australia. He enjoys immersing himself and his art in the landscape quite literally often allowing the land to impact the artwork physically - some example are below.

• Buried Painting: Wolesley  has buried paintings and let the earth and moisture impact them over months. 
• Bush as Pencil: Wolesley uses burnt trees as drawing implements walking through the burnt scrub with large sheets of paper allowing the burnt twigs to leave their mark.
• Printing Textures:  Wolesley takes prints of or frottage ( rubbings) of textures in the landscape - bark, beetle tracks ( even dead wildlife).

Wolesley views the landscape in multiple ways simultaneously - often combining multiple viewpoints in the one work.

• Ariel Views: Recording the landscape as if view from above using notation similar mapping and contours
• Macro Views: Tiny details, tracks of bugs, close up of seeds and grasses investigated in detail.
• Scientific observation and notation: writing observations, diarising experiences, rainfall, wind, the movement of creatures on the work. 

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2. LAND ART: Any Goldsworthy
Andy Goldsworthy interprets the land is unique ways working in it and with it to create unique artworks that draw our attention to the beuty and fragility of the landscape.

• In and with the land: Goldsworthy's work is often very sculptural and he does not use any artificial tools or materials instead working with natural materials that he finds in the environment like thorns, sap, ice etc.
• Ephemeral: This means that the works are not permanent and will melt, bow away, crumble, fall and decompose etc
• Documentation: Ephemeral work must be documented to preserve the moment in time when it has been created. Goldsworthy works with photography and more recently video to record his process which is mostly solitary and in extreme and often inhospitable conditions.
• There is certainly some overlay with mosaic in his work, The painstaking collection and preparation of pieces which are then assembled one at a time to form meaning. 

Andy Goldsworthy : Rivers and Tides( Shorts)
3.30 Minutes

Andy Goldsworthy : Rivers and Tides (Full Length Version)
90 Minutes

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  3. Aboriginal Representations of Landscape 

• Aboriginal art is as diverse as any other style or genre, The way artists tell their stories varies from artists to artist even within the same family.
• In the short videos below you can see the work of Sarrita King a young aboriginal woman and contemporary artist. 
• Again we can find many similarities between the use of the tesserae in  mosaic practice and the use of the dot in  Sarrita's mark making. 

You can read more about Sarrita King on her website here​​
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Japingka Gallery Darwin, NT
Sarrita King talking about works on the story of fire.
​Watch Time: 3.52 Minutes

Japingka Gallery Darwin, NT
Sarrita King talking about her work about the story of her Ancestors.
​Watch Time: 2.48 Minutes

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Analysing Artworks

In class we will look at 4 different landscape artworks and work through analysing these. 
We will talk through one together before breaking off into small groups to talk about the other selected images. 

The works are
1. Eugene von Guérard, North-east view from the northern top of Mount Kosciusko , 1864
2. Vincent van Gogh: Starry Night, 1889
3. Henri Rousseau, The Dream, 1910
4. Claude Monet, Waterlilies, 1914 - 1926
Please see the works in the below PDF as well as the artwork analysis doc to the right. 

PDF of Focus Works

PDF of Artwork Analysis Scaffold