Constructing a view: Contemporary techniques for landscape composition

Artist and art historian Aliki Braine leads a practical course exploring the history of Western landscape painting through contemporary approaches to drawing and image making.

Although many of the National Gallery’s best loved paintings depict the outdoors, landscapes were historically considered to be the lowest ranking subject in the hierarchy of painting. So much so that a text published in 1548 quotes Michelangelo dismissing landscape painting as ‘done without reason or art…’. Depicting a landscape relied on direct observation and topographical accuracy, which at the time were believed to lack invention or creativity.

This course revisits and challenges these ideas, examining how artists have transformed landscape painting through composition, imagination and invention. We visit the gallery to study the work of landscape painters including Jacob van Ruisdael, Claude, John Constable, Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot, identifying the visual elements that make these works compelling. Using playful methods of drawing, cutting, folding and weaving, inspired by Braine’s own photographic landscape practice, you will create compositions of natural forms from collection paintings to develop your own unique constructed landscapes.

This session is suitable for all levels of artists. All materials are provided, and your work is yours to take home. Handouts with extra resources will be provided in advance of the session.

Suitable for participants aged 18 or over.