Gusak Natalya Yurievna was born in 1968 in Omsk. Her father, a little-known Siberian artist from an early age, instilled in his daughter a love of paint and constantly took with him to sketches. Her childhood passed in Siberia. In 1989 she graduated from the Omsk Art School. Since 1995 he has been working at a professional level, a regular participant in regional exhibitions. Currently lives in central Russia, in a small, quiet city - Kovrov. In connection with the development of the Internet, interest in her work began to increase.

Natalia's works can be found in her hometown of Omsk, as well as in Moscow, St. Petersburg, Vladimir, Berlin, Rome, Marseille, Washington.
The artist works in various genres: landscape, still life. Owns the technique of batik. In recent years, in addition to painting, she became interested in painting lacquer miniatures. Her works are made in the best traditions of landscape masters. Landscapes about the beauty of Russian nature are simple and natural. Works

Lesson development (lesson notes)

Basic general education

Line UMK S. P. Lomov. Fine Arts (5-9)

Attention! The site administration site is not responsible for the content of methodological developments, as well as for the compliance of the development of the Federal State Educational Standard.

The purpose of the lesson

Learn to convey space in a landscape at different times of the year.

Lesson objectives

To update knowledge about the landscape as a genre of painting. To study the types of landscape. To get acquainted with the methods of conveying color and color scheme of different seasons in landscapes. To learn how to perform sketches of landscapes at different times of the year and transfer space to them.

Activities

Perception of phenomena and objects of art. Analysis of works of art. Summarizing under the concepts of "landscape", "types of landscape (landscape, rural, urban, marine, industrial, space)"; "color and color scheme of the landscape", "space in the landscape", "aerial and linear perspective". Visual activity (painting), drawing by imagination.

Key Concepts

Landscape, types of landscape (landscape, rural, urban, marine, industrial, space), color and color scheme of the landscape, space in the landscape, aerial and linear perspective, study.

Art tells about the beauty of the Earth.

Landscape in music, literature, painting.

A. Pushkin called art a "magic crystal", through the facets

which people around us, objects and phenomena are seen in a new way

habitual life.

At all times, painters, composers and writers embody in their works various natural phenomena that excited them. Through the feelings and experiences that arise in them when they perceive the majestic sea or the mysterious stars, the endless plains or the smooth bend of the river, they convey their vision of the world.

Thanks to works of art - literary, musical, pictorial - nature appears before readers, listeners, spectators is always different: majestic, sad, tender, jubilant, mourning, touching. These images continue to attract a person, touching the finest strings of his soul, help to touch the unique beauty of his native nature, to see the unusual in what is familiar and everyday, give everyone the opportunity to develop a sense of belonging to their native land, to their father's house.

Landscape (French paysage - view, image of any area) is a genre dedicated to the image of nature. In European art, the landscape emerged as an independent genre in the 17th century.

Landscape - poetic and musical painting

History of the development of landscape in Russian painting

Venetsianov and his students were the first to turn in their work to the Russian landscape.

Under blue skies

splendid carpets,

Snow shines in the sun.

The transparent forest alone turns black,

And the spruce turns green through the frost,

And the river glitters under the ice.

A.S. Pushkin. ("Winter morning")

Slide 1 "Winter" Nikifor Krylov. (1802-1831)

Nikifor Krylov wrote his painting “Winter” in 1827. It was the first Russian winter landscape.

Krylov wrote the landscape, seen from the window of the workshop, within a month. The outskirts of the village appear before the eyes, the inhabitants are busy with their daily activities: in the foreground a woman with a yoke carries full buckets of water, a man leads a horse towards her by the bridle, two other women who stopped to talk are depicted behind the woman with a yoke. In the distance you can see the forest, and beyond it the endless plain. Around the white snow, bare trees. The author masterfully captured the atmosphere of the Russian winter. Such a surprisingly sincere and simple winter landscape is a rare occurrence in Russian painting in the first half of the 19th century. The painting was first presented at an exhibition at the Academy of Arts, where it was well received by contemporaries, who noted "charmingly seized winter lighting, nebula gave and all the differences of a cold that is well remembered."

Tretyakov Gallery.

The landscapes of Grigory Soroka, the beloved student of Venetsianov, are captivating and sad. And I'm afraid to break this silence. As if waking up, nature will lose irretrievable kindness and bliss and peace. Grigory Sorokin - the serf of the landowner Milyukov.Grigory Vasilyevich Soroka (1823-1864)Grigory Vasilyevich Soroka is a student of A.G. Venetsianov, one of the most talented and beloved. A serf of the Tver landowner N.P. Milyukov, a neighbor and good friend of A.G. Venetsianov. Taken by the master to his household in the Ostrovka estate, Soroka, apparently, was noticed by the artist there, and, with the permission of Milyukov, the master took him to his village of Safonkovo. Like all students of Venetsianov, Soroka works mainly from nature, draws a lot, paints landscapes, portraits, interiors. A.G. Venetsianov tried to redeem him from captivity, but did not have time because of his tragic death. After his death, Grigory Vasilyevich Soroka committed suicide.

And only almost a quarter of a century later, an artist was destined to appear in Russian art, about whom the poet could say: “With nature alone, he breathed life, by the stream he understood babble, and he understood and heard the vegetative vegetation of the leaves of trees ...” Savrasov. He tried to find in the most simple, ordinary, those intimate, deeply touching, often sad features that are so strongly felt in the Russian landscape and so irresistibly affect the soul.

In 1871, Savrasov created his famous masterpiece - the painting “The Rooks Have Arrived” (Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow). He painted it from nature in the village of Molvitino, Kostroma province. The artist loved to depict spring, and in this picture he managed to subtly and convincingly show its first signs: darkened March snow, melt water, air saturated with spring moisture, a sky covered with dark clouds, birds fussing over their nests. Every detail of the landscape expresses a keen sense of anticipation of spring. This is probably why the picture is so fond of the Russian audience, the harsh and long winter, looking forward to the arrival of spring and its first heralds - rooks.

The painting, shown at a traveling art exhibition, attracted the attention of many. The well-known art historian Alexandre Benois called it a guiding star for a whole generation of 19th-century landscape masters. I.N. Kramskoy, who saw the canvas at the exhibition, spoke of him like this: “Savrasov's landscape is the best, and it is really beautiful, although Bogolyubov ... and Shishkin are right there. But all these are trees, water and even air, and the soul is only in “Rooks”.

People, as if for the first time saw in their paintings both the transparent spring air, and the birch trees filled with spring juice; heard cheerful, full of hope, joyful chirping of birds. And the sky does not seem so gray and bleak, and the spring mud amuses, pleases the eye. Here, it turns out, what Russian nature is like - gentle, thoughtful, touching! Thanks to the picture Alexei Kondratievich Savrasov(1830-1897) "The Rooks Have Arrived" Russian artists felt the songliness of Russian nature, and Russian composers felt the landscape of Russian folk songs.

The landscape of Ivan Ivanovich Shishkin “In the wild north ...” was written in 1891 to the motive of M. Yu. Lermontov’s poem “Pine”. The work is done on canvas with oil. This work is kept in the Kiev Museum of Russian Art. On the canvas, we see a pine tree, which stands on the edge of a cliff and is ready to fall at any moment under the weight of snow, which flakes stuck around its branches-hands. The top of the pine tree looks like the head of an eagle, which is about to fall off, flap its wings and relieve itself from the unbearable burden with relief. The gloomy dark blue sky is permeated with anxiety. The middle of the pine, closer to the trunk, looks like a skeleton that has lost its flesh-leaf during the winter. This work is saturated with the spirit of loneliness and cold.

Read the poem by M.Yu. Lermontov "In the wild north stands alone"

Stands alone in the wild north
On the bare top of a pine tree,
And dozing, swaying, and loose snow
She is dressed like a robe.
And she dreams of everything that is in the distant desert,
In the region where the sun rises
Alone and sad on a rock with fuel
A beautiful palm tree is growing.

In general, oak is one of the favorite trees of the landscape painter, who tirelessly portrayed these magnificent titans created by unpredictable nature. On this canvas, Shishkin's oaks are magnificent heroes of the forest epic, widely spread mighty branches-paws. The trees are illuminated by the rays of the sun, which is about to leave the sky soon. The time of day depicted in the picture is evening. However, Shishkin masterfully emphasizes the unusual play of the luminary on the mighty trunks of oaks.

Contemporaries called Shishkin "the patriarch of the forest", and these words very accurately conveyed the artist's attitude to nature and art. The forest, which the painter loved selflessly, became the main character of his paintings. Shishkin did not just write nature: he, as a scientist, explored it. The master never tired of repeating to his students: “You can never put an end to the study of nature, you can’t say that you have learned it completely and that you don’t need to study anymore.” Shishkin was the first Russian painter of the 19th century to understand the importance and significance of natural studies. He perfectly knew the forest, the structure of each tree and plant.

“If pictures of the nature of our dear Russia are dear to us, if we want to find our own, truly folk ways, to the image of her sincere appearance, then these paths also lie through your mighty forests full of unique poetry.” - This is how Viktor Vasnetsov wrote to the landscape painter Ivan Shishkin.

“This boy will show himself yet, no one, and he himself, including, have no idea about the possibilities hidden in him.” - These are the words of the artist Kramskoy about the Russian artist Fyodor Vasiliev. Vasiliev lived only 23 years, but how much he managed to do. His excited brush told people so much about the greatness and mystery of nature.

Painting "Birch Grove" (1879). In the foreground, not whole trees are depicted, but only flexible white trunks. Behind them - the silhouettes of bushes and trees, and around - the emerald green of the swamp with a clearing full of dark water.

The gift of color sensations is a kind of luxury that elevates a person ”- this statement of the scientist Petrashevsky can be fully attributed to the work of Kuindzhi.

“The illusion of light was his God, and there was no artist equal to him in achieving this miracle of painting. Kuindzhi is an artist of light,” Repin wrote in 1913.

A contemporary of A. Savrasov and I. Shishkin, he brought the magic of light into the landscape. The world of nature on his canvases is like a fairy-tale palace, where a person is visited by beautiful and eternal dreams.

The unpretentious beauty of the Central Russian strip did not attract the attention of artists for a long time. Boring, monotonous flat landscapes, gray

the sky, spring thaw or summer grass withered from the heat ... What is poetic in this?

Russian artists of the XIX century. A. Savrasov, I. Levitan, I. Shishkin and others discovered the beauty of their native land.

Levitan's paintings require a slow examination. They do not stun the eye, they are modest and precise, like Chekhov's stories. So few notes and so much music. The great poet of nature, Levitan, fully felt the inexplicable charm of the Russian landscape, and in his paintings he managed to convey love for the Motherland, not embellished with anything, beautiful in its immediacy.

The canvas “Fresh wind. Volga” (1895, Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow). Free wind covers the water with light ripples, fills the sails, drives light clouds across the sky. With the help of sonorous, fresh colors, the master conveys the dazzling whiteness of the steamer and clouds slightly gilded by the sun, the bright blueness of the sky and the river.

In "Quiet Abode" the artist managed to freshly and emotionally show a generalized image of nature. The same motif of the temple, reflected in the calm and transparent river water, Levitan repeated in the painting “Evening Bells” (1892, Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow).

Levitan is recognized as one of the most subtle and soulful landscape painters. With the work of Levitan, the concept of "mood landscape" entered Russian painting. The ability to objectively convey the beauty of nature in all its variety of changing manifestations and at the same time express the state of the human soul through the landscape, its subtlest experiences were the precious qualities of the artist's talent. The picture “Golden Autumn”, imbued with a jubilant mood, is a kind of farewell hymn to the last flowering of nature: the extraordinary brightness of colors, the “burning” of gold of birches, the multicolored cover of the earth. Painted with brilliant skill, the landscape is distinguished by a complex color scheme, a variety of picturesque surfaces, on which textured colorful strokes stand out.

Probably, it is about the paintings “Golden Autumn” and “Fresh Wind. Volga” Grabar wrote: “... They instilled courage and faith in us, they infected and lifted. I wanted to live and work.”

But Levitan has few such life-affirming and joyful landscapes.

The canvas “Spring. Big Water” (1897, Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow). The coloring of the picture is very harmonious. With the help of the finest color nuances, the artist conveys the fresh charm of the coming spring. Thin tree trunks are permeated with dim sunlight. Their fragility and grace emphasize clear reflections in the water. This emotional and penetrating picture of nature conveys the depth of human feelings and experiences. The presence of a person is reminded by a lonely boat near the shore and modest peasant houses on the horizon.

Ples is a small provincial town on the banks of the Volga, where Levitan worked for three years (1888-1890). Here Levitan first found those motives and plots that later immortalized his name, and, at the same time, the name of Plyos. Golden Ples is one of the masterpieces created by Levitan at this time. The feeling of peaceful silence, the soft glow of sunset light, the gentle haze of fog floating over a sleeping river are conveyed with amazing sensitivity in this canvas... his blows. Part of the white stone house with a red roof was filmed by Levitan for some time.

The philosophical warehouse and the dramatic inner world of the artist, his reflections on the frailty of human existence in the face of eternity are revealed.

Painting by Levitan Lake (Rus)(1895, State Russian Museum, St. Petersburg) - the artist's last large painting, on which he worked for a long time and with inspiration. Perhaps, not for one of the works, he did not make so many preparatory sketches and sketches. It is known that during the creation lakes the artist traveled more than once to study sketches in the Tver province, in places that once served as nature for the picture Above eternal rest. But compared to the last lake not mournful, but solemnly major music of nature is heard. Lake makes a strong impression with its bright, festive sound, “chime”, uniting the high blue sky, across which snow-white clouds float, and the wonderful expanse of the blue lake, near the near shore of which the reeds excited by the fresh wind turn green, and on the far shores one can see villages and raising heads to sky white temples and bell towers.

Wonderful day, centuries will pass

They will also be in eternal order

Flowing and sparkling river

And the fields breathe in the heat.

Fedor Tyutchev

Read words of the Russian poet I. Bunin.

No, it's not the landscape that attracts me,

The greedy gaze will not notice the colors,

And what shines in these colors:

Love and joy of being.

How do you understandwords of the Russian poet I. Bunin?

The statement of the French writer A. de Saint-Exupery: “You can’t see the most important thing with your eyes, only the heart is vigilant.”

Quest: about explain the meaning?

burn in a creative notebook in prosaic or poetic form, the impression of some natural phenomenon that struck you with its beauty.

Pick up pieces of music that are in tune with the paintings of Russian artists. What artistic associations arise in your imagination?

Listen to music:

S.I. Taneyev "Pine" on lyrics by Y. Lermontov.

“You are my field” is a Russian folk song.

It is necessary to analyze, compare with the literary text and paintings of artists.

Literary pages

Listen to poems about nature:Native. D. Merezhkovsky

Autumn evening. F. Tyutchev.

Read aloud two literary works written in the 20th century, find intonations, tempo, voice dynamics to convey the emotional state reflected in these works.

All in a melting haze

N. Rylenkov

To an unknown friend

Sunny - dewy this morning, like an undiscovered earth, an unknown layer of heaven, such a unique morning, no one has risen yet, no one has seen anything, and you yourself see for the first time. Nightingales sing their spring songs, dandelions are still preserved in quiet places, and, perhaps, in the dampness of a black shadow, a lily of the valley turns white. Lively summer birds came to help the nightingales.<…>Everywhere the restless chirping of thrushes, and the woodpecker was very tired of looking for live food for his little ones, sat down far from them on a bough just to rest.

Get up, my friend! Collect the rays of your happiness in a bundle, be bold, start the fight, help the sun! Listen, and the cuckoo has come to help you. Look, the harrier swims over the water: this is not an ordinary harrier, this morning it is the first and only, and now the magpies, sparkling with dew, came out onto the path<…>. This morning is the only one, not a single person has ever seen it on the entire globe: only you and your unknown friend see it.

And for tens of thousands of years people have lived on earth, saving up, passing each other joy, so that you come, pick it up, gather its arrows into bundles and rejoice. Be bold, dare!

And again the soul will expand: firs, birches, - and I can’t take my eyes off the green candles on the pines and on the young red cones on the firs. Christmas trees, birches, how good!

M. Prishvin

Answer the questions;

* What thoughts of the poet and writer, revealing the secrets of native Russian nature, help to feel its beauty? Highlight key words in these texts that are important to you.

What paintings do you associate with these literary images?

Pick up reproductions of landscapes by Russian artists that are in tune with them.

Artistic and creative tasks

Prepare a computer presentation on the topic "Landscape in literature, music, painting." Justify your choice of artwork.

Imagine yourself as a sound engineer, pick up the musical compositions familiar to you, which can be used to voice the literary works presented above. Read them to this music.

Listen to music:

Autumn. G. Sviridov;

The legend of the invisible city of Kitezh. Introduction;

Answer the question: Which of these pieces of music is voiced by F. Tyutchev's poem about nature?

Remember music lessons. Listen again to the music of Valery Gavrilin. Is it consonant with the paintings of I. Levitan?

Visible music

Listeners all over the world know and love the masterpieces of musical classics - "The Seasons" - a series of concerts by the Italian composer XVIII

in. Antonio Vivaldi(1678-1741) and a cycle of Russian piano pieces

19th century composer Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky(1840-1893). Both compositions belong to program music: they have titles and are accompanied by poetic lines - sonnets by the composer himself in Vivaldi concertos and Russian verses poets for each of the 12 plays of the cycle Tchaikovsky.

A. Vivaldi "Seasons" for string orchestra.

P.I. Tchaikovsky "The Seasons" - cycle for piano

12 plays - 12 pictures from the Russian life of Tchaikovsky received epigraphs from the poems of Russian poets during the publication:

And do not rush after the three
And sad anxiety in my heart
Shut it down forever."
N.A. Nekrasov

"Christmas". December:
Once a Epiphany Eve
The girls guessed
Behind the gate slipper
They took it off their feet and threw it."
V.A. Zhukovsky

"Snowdrop". April Listen
"Dove clean
Snowdrop: flower,
And near the see-through
Last snow.
Last tears
About the grief of the past
And the first dreams
About other happiness ... "
A.N. Maikov

"White Nights". May Listen
"What a night! What bliss is on everything!
Thank you, native midnight land!
From the realm of ice, from the realm of blizzards and snow
How fresh and clean your May flies!"
A.A. Fet

"Barcarolle". June Listen
"Let's go to the shore, there are waves
Our feet will kiss,
Stars with mysterious sadness
They will shine over us
A.N. Pleshcheev

"Song of the mower". July:
"Shut up, shoulder. Swing your arm!
You smell in the face, Wind from noon!
A.V. Koltsov

"Harvest". August:
"People families
Started to reap
Mow at the root
Rye high!
In shocks frequent
Sheaves are stacked.
From wagons all night
Music hides."
A.V. Koltsov

"Hunting". September:
"It's time, it's time! The horns blow:
Psari in hunting gear
Than the world is sitting on horseback;
Greyhounds jump on packs."
A.S. Pushkin

In Russian landscapes-moods - poetic, pictorial and musical - images of nature, thanks to the amazing songlike intonations, melodies lasting like an endless song, like the melody of a lark, convey the lyrical desire of the human soul for beauty, help people to better understand the poetic content of nature sketches.

These are the words he described his impressions of the painting by I. Levitan

"Spring. Big Water ", a connoisseur of Russian painting M. Alpatov:

Thin, like candles, girlishly slender birch trees look like the very ones that have been sung from time immemorial in Russian songs. The reflection of the birch trees in the clear water, as it were, constitutes their continuation, their echo,

melodic echo, they dissolve in the water with their roots, their pink branches merge with the blueness of the sky. The contours of these bent birch trees sound like a gentle and sadly mournful flute, separate voices of more powerful trunks break out of this choir, all of them are opposed by a tall pine trunk and dense green spruce.

Pay attention to the epithets in the description of the picture. Why did the author use musical comparisons?

I can imagine what a delight we now have in Russia - the rivers have overflowed, everything comes to life. There is no better country than Russia... Only in Russia can there be a real landscape painter.

I. Levitan

Why did a simple Russian landscape, why a walk in the summer in Russia, in the countryside, through the fields, through the forest, in the evening in the steppe, used to lead me to such a state that I lay down on the ground in some kind of exhaustion from the influx of love for nature, those inexplicably sweet and intoxicating impressions that a forest, a steppe, a river, a village in the distance, a modestthe church, in a word, everything that made up the miserable Russian native landscape? Why all this?

P. Tchaikovsky

What attracts composers and artists in Russian nature?

Complete a task of your choice

Listen to fragments of program works by A. Vivaldi and P. Tchaikovsky. What feelings does this music evoke in you?

Find in them similar and different features, expressive means that convey the attitude of composers to nature. What distinguishes Russian music from Italian?

What visual, literary associations do you get under the impression of these works? Match the lyrics to the music.

Listen to modern adaptations of classical works depicting nature. What new do modern performers bring to the interpretation of melodies familiar to you?

Artistic and creative task

Pick up reproductions of landscape paintings. Write a short story about one of the paintings in your creative notebook, find musical and literary examples for it.

Musical works: P.I. Tchaikovsky cycle of piano pieces "Seasons"; A.Vivaldi. Concerto for string instruments "Seasons"; (fragments).

Work on landscapes in the technique of watercolor painting is described in detail in the special manual "Watercolor", the authors G. B. Smirnov and A. A. Unkovsky ("Enlightenment", 1964). Therefore, in this manual, we confine ourselves to describing the work on landscapes in the technique of oil painting.

In order to paint landscape studies, one must have a sketchbook with all the necessary accessories, a folding chair, an umbrella, primed sheets of cardboard or canvases on stretchers. If the sketchbook does not have retractable legs, then for large canvases you need a lightweight folding easel.

A novice artist is attracted by a lot of objects. Nature captures with its beauty, I want to write everything, in a word, I want to “embrace the immensity”. However, you need to be able to calculate your strength and set a specific task. To begin with, we recommend doing two small studies in a day with a specific goal - to convey the state of nature with the help of large tonal ratios.

When choosing a landscape motif, many things can attract attention: lighting, color and tonal relationships of sky and earth, the nature of vegetation, the relationship of its large masses with smaller ones, a certain weather condition, for example, a quiet morning, a bright afternoon with contrasting chiaroscuro, or subtle relationships of overcast, “gray ” or “silver” day.

It is important to keep in mind all the time what struck you in the first moment. Having outlined on cardboard with the help of a stick of coal the ratio of earth and sky, drawing the largest masses, you need to take a closer look and try to more accurately determine the general tone that will characterize this state of nature. It is immediately necessary to determine how much one part of the landscape is darker in relation to the other, which is the darkest, which is the lightest. Correctly found tonal relationships are the basis that will help convey the state of nature.

You need to start writing with the main objects in tonal and color terms. In most cases, you have to immediately take the ratio of the tone of the earth, forest or buildings in the background to the sky. If there is a tree trunk or other large object in the foreground of the chosen motif, then it is necessary to take the relations of the foreground, earth and sky, but in each specific case you have to decide for yourself where it is more expedient to start determining the pictorial solution. It must be taken into account that the lighting in nature changes rapidly, the tonal and color relationships also change, and therefore you cannot count on a long session. On a gray day, a sketch can be written for a relatively long time, and on a sunny day, in the morning or in the evening, no more than an hour and a half. On a clear noon, relations do not change so quickly, which allows you to work for two to two and a half hours. At sunset or at sunrise, when a thunderstorm approaches, etc., you can only write fast studies.

In addition to the fidelity of tonal relationships, it is necessary to take care of the saturation of color, its activity. Inexperienced artists often write in gray colors or heavily blacken shady places,

At the beginning of studying landscape painting, it is recommended to write one-session sketches. The sizes of one-session etudes should not be large. It is most convenient to write them on primed cardboard, fixed on the inside of the lid of the sketchbook. Drawing a landscape study is often done with a thin kolinsky brush. The paint should be diluted and muted in color (one of the browns or ultramarines, but never black). It should be remembered that the pencil or paint of the drawing will be mixed when applying the color and dirty it. In the drawing, it is necessary to achieve the correct definition of proportions and constructive structure, but one should not refine it with unnecessary details that will fetter the work with a brush.

Before starting work, you should try to mentally "see" the finished study and think about how best to determine the main color relationships. It is impossible to write to the end only any one part of the etude, when the color layout of other large surfaces is not defined. The color of the sky is greatly influenced by the color. It especially noticeably affects the color of those shadow surfaces on which its reflexes fall. On those surfaces where the reflections of the sky do not fall, the influence of light rays reflected from the ground, buildings, trees is visible. When small clouds float across the sky, their shadows will be visible on the ground. The foreground may be shaded and the distance illuminated, or vice versa.

The novice landscape painter is often confused by the variability of lighting, but the distribution of light and shade established at the beginning of the sketch must be strictly observed. White snow, white clouds and white walls cannot be painted simply with white paint, since one or another color characteristic of each surface will depend on the lighting and on the impact of color reflections. In those cases when, against the background of a bright sky, it is necessary to convey a mass of thin branches without foliage, you can first “pave” them with the desired color, and make gaps on top with small strokes.

When writing an etude, one should pay attention to the variety of characteristics of the “touches” of the depicted surfaces. To convey the air environment, it is impossible to sharply delineate the boundaries of objects, as this will destroy the softness inherent in nature. But at the same time, sometimes it is necessary to reveal a clear silhouette of a dark tree against the sky or other tonal contrasts. The soft “blurring” of color tones characterizes a foggy day, while the clarity of sculpting the shape of objects is characteristic of dry sunny weather. In the foreground, the direction of the strokes should clearly reveal the sculpting of the form.

Reflections in calm water are often painted with vertical strokes. There can be no ready-made recipes, in each individual case it is necessary to think which direction of the stroke will help to better convey nature. One cannot only allow a random, chaotic pile of strokes.

A large place in landscape paintings is occupied by the image of clouds. The forms of clouds are very diverse, and the artist must study their structure well. Clouds can have vertical and horizontal development, located in the upper, middle or lower tiers.

Cirrus clouds are very high and have the appearance of light strokes, as if painted on a clear blue sky, or resemble feathers arranged in a fan. They are arranged in stripes and, according to the laws of perspective, seem to converge on the horizon at the vanishing point. There are no shadows on cirrus clouds, as they are transparent and sometimes have a silky sheen. They consist of very small ice crystals, and their transparency depends on the relatively rare distribution of ice particles. When cirrus clouds cover the sun, they slightly weaken its light, but the solar disk is still visible. Before sunrise and sunset, painted in orange and pinkish tones, they are brightly lit at a time when it is already dark on the surface of the earth. During the day, cirrus clouds have a slightly yellowish color near the horizon, which is explained by a large layer of air separating them from the viewer. The boundaries of cirrus clouds are vague, do not have sharp outlines. Sometimes cirrostratus clouds resemble a light veil that gives the sky a milky tint without completely blocking the sunlight.

Altocumulus clouds look like ridges consisting of small lumps. Depending on the thickness of the layer, the tone of the clouds changes from light to dark. Clear sky gaps are visible between individual clouds. Sometimes ridges of dark altocumulus clouds can be seen against the background of lighter cirrostratus clouds. It is often possible to observe several layers of altocumulus clouds having different color and tonal ratios. It depends on their lighting conditions.

Altostratus clouds can form a dense monochromatic cover in the sky. Stratocumulus clouds often cover the entire sky, but the thickness of the layering of clouds varies and forms a "wavy surface" with alternating light and dark tones. Such layers of clouds can often be seen in winter.

At sunset, the so-called evening stratocumulus clouds form, which have flat, elongated shapes. Dark nimbostratus clouds give uniform tones throughout the sky. These clouds are characteristic of cloudy rain.

When the sun is hidden by a thick cover of stratus clouds, the study can be painted for a long time, since the lighting conditions change little.

Dense cumulus clouds increase vertically, develop in clear weather and look like snowy mountains or fantastic towers. On such clouds, in side light, brightly illuminated and shadow surfaces are observed, revealing their relief. Cumulus clouds have domed tops and their bases are horizontal. The lower surfaces of cumulus clouds are different in color characteristics, as reflections from the grass cover of the earth, dense forests or sandy desert fall on them. Sometimes a cumulus cloud, developing vertically, turns into a thundercloud that looks like a giant anvil. From above, such a cloud loses its clarity of outline. Very low broken clouds of other tonal characteristics form under its base. When a cumulus cloud covers almost the entire sky, only its base is visible to the observer, resembling nimbostratus clouds. Cumulonimbus clouds produce fast-moving downpours that are visible from a distance as a dark curtain between the lower surface of the cloud and the ground. The leading edge of a large thundercloud often separates in the form of a darker-colored ridge and is visible against the backdrop of a towering light cloud tower. The external outlines of clouds, with the ability to observe them in nature, make it possible to understand the direction of the air current and the direction of the wind.

In order to study various cloud structures, it is recommended to perform more sketches and one-session studies. One must learn to coordinate the shapes and color tones of the clouds in the landscape with the overall composition and color.

The inserts show the sequence of work on a landscape study. The first stage of work is the execution of a pencil drawing, on which the composition is defined and all elements of the landscape are marked out. The format of the etude is vertical. The horizon line is taken below the middle, a sheet of cardboard, the trees are placed at different distances. Already in the initial markup, a different characteristic of the shape of each tree is shown. The second stage of work is the determination of the main color and tonal relationships. The ratios of the trees in front, as well as the distant forest to the sky and to the earth, are taken. The third stage is a generalized registration. The entire surface of the cardboard is laid with paint. At this stage, the previously outlined relationships between the tree in the foreground and the trees in the depth of the picture were further developed. The relationships between the clouds near the horizon and in the upper part of the study were determined. The spatial solution of the foreground and distant plans of the earth is revealed. The last stage corresponds to the degree of completeness that can be achieved in a one-session study. We recommend that you pay attention to the fact that each tree has its own color and tonal characteristics, and also consider how the details are transferred: bark, some branches, grass rays on the ground, etc. In the last stage of the work, the artist's main attention was focused on the final generalization tone and color relationships.

It must be remembered that the main task in the sketch is the study of nature, color and tonal relationships that characterize nature at different times of the year, under different weather conditions. Working on an etude requires direct observation. Fragmentation, incompleteness of details is excusable here.

Having accumulated some skills in landscape painting while performing small short-term studies, you can move on to work on large and more complex studies in composition, designed for two or three sessions.

Before starting a long study, it is useful to make a few preliminary sketches, compose the image, highlight the compositional center. You can not rush to make a drawing for painting. It is necessary to carefully draw in it all the characteristic forms, to trace the plastic interconnection of large and smaller masses of vegetation.

Underpainting, that is, a wide lining of the canvas with paints, it is better to start with the largest and clearest in color areas of nature. We advise you to start writing in a liquid way, avoiding white in the shadows, which will allow you to achieve the necessary saturation of color relationships. After the first session, the canvas must be dried, as it is better to paint on a dry underpainting. Before the next session, it is recommended to wipe the dried surface of the canvas with a cut of the bulb. In the second session, you can write pasty, but without being distracted by small details, trying to maintain that harmony of color and tonal relationships that distinguishes the chosen landscape motif. When working on the shape of trees, leaves and other elements, you need to think about the meaning that this or that element has in the overall color system of the canvas.

In the next session, which may be the last, we recommend working either on a wet layer, that is, the next day or on a dry one, but in no case on a semi-dry layer, since in this case the colors fade and they fade. Working on the identification of forms, it is necessary to achieve the veracity of the image of nature. At the end of the work, you need to generalize some details if they “fall out” of the general system, or strengthen them if they lack the activity of color and tone.