When you paint outdoors, you're not just capturing what you see . You are capturing what you feel. The wind might mess with your canvas. The light keeps changing, and sometimes you've got to pack up because the weather is too bad. But that's exactly what makes plein air painting so fun. It forces you to work fast to capture the experience.
In "Wilderness Within," I used thick, expressive brushstrokes because that's how the landscape felt that day. The paint application itself becomes part of the message. Those bold use of the pallette knife isn’t just technique. They are the visual language of emotion, the way feelings look when they're translated into color and texture.
How Hiking Shapes My Artistic Vision
Being out on the trails almost every day changes how you see things. When most people think about disconnecting from modern life, they picture turning off their phones. But for me, it's about turning on something else. It is this heightened awareness that only comes when you're fully present in nature.
The foothills near my home have become my outdoor studio. Each hike is like a hunt for new compositions. I am always making new ways to see the light in the landscape I make new emotional connections. The physical act of hiking is the rhythm of your feet, the way your breathing changes with elevation. It may see odd to you abut all of that becomes part of how you approach the painting later.
The Spiritual Connection Between Artist and Landscape
There's something almost meditative about working directly from nature. You're not just an observer anymore; you become part of the landscape you are painting.
Finding Inner Peace Through Creative Expression
What I've learned from years of hiking and painting is that the wilderness outside us awakens the wilderness within us. That untamed part of our nature, like our creativity, our authentic emotions, our connection to something bigger than ourselves. It needs regular contact with the natural world to stay alive.
When people ask me why I paint landscapes, I tell them it's because the landscape paints me first. Every time I'm out there, nature is showing me something new about myself, about how I process beauty, challenge, solitude, and wonder.
The Metaphor of Mountain and Mind
In "Wilderness Within," the heavy use of the pallette knife creates a kind of emotional topography. The painting isn't just about externaltrails through the wildflowers. It is about the internal ones we all navigate.
