Landscape Meditations

James D. Altenstadter

Each time I paint I desire to learn something new of lasting value, to take simple delight in the pleasure of painting, and to reach a set goal. Balancing these three aspects in the creative process of painting landscape meditations absorbs my full awareness.

I strive to express a visual impression of an imagined sense of place and time. I choose to let the gestures of painting show, without subordinating or hiding them. The execution of strokes is done quickly and intuitively, going along with creative impulses. Through an energetic expression of texture within simple, flowing shapes, I celebrate the surface textures of the painting. I delight in the expressive values of these textures. I cherish a playful and spontaneous approach. I try to keep an open, beginner's mind.

For painting to be such a playful art form, I find setting a few self-imposed limitations helpful. Without them I would be less certain as to where or how to begin, or how to proceed. So each time before I begin to paint, I affirm my acceptance of these boundaries and the personal responsibilities they impose. For me, this means I'll accept whatever adversity or providence comes my way, always with equanimity. This means I'll exert by best effort at all times. And I'll honorably respect the nature of the materials I work with.

My intention is directed towards the creation of cellular, curvilinear, organic textures, somewhat vein-like, which result from the rolling of paint mixtures with lively strokes. I try to maintain an open attitude of inquiry, experimentation, and exploration when painting. The fanciful impressions of skies and land forms that result are often inexplicably mysterious to me, being somewhere between abstraction and representation of the landscape. I aspire to someday paint with apparent effortlessness, but never without a sense of adventure.

In order to create the textures I seek, I use rollers of all descriptions. I apply acrylic paints, mediums, gels, and pastes directly onto the support. I let the physical act of rolling strokes do the mixing of colors, setting pictorial edges and shapes, as well as creating interesting surface textures. I typically apply several washes and glazes, taking advantage of the irregular ridges, knobs, and hollows of the surface to separate and settle the added layers of color. I often draw with pencil on the acrylic surface. The result, when successful, sometimes repesents a pebbled sheen that is reminiscent of stained glass. I rely on the undulating, glossy surface to cause points of shimmering highlights that vary as viewing and lighting angles change.

I purposely keep my compositions fairly simple, necessitated, in part, by my use of broad rollers. The choice of rollers allows me to move the paints and gels around quickly on the painting surface, accomodating the quick drying acrylics. I typically employ a horizontal perspective, with just  a small number of planes to suggest depth and atmosphere. The simple shapes are treated abstractly, as I prefer a suggested landscape that feels real, rather than necessarily looking real.

I prefer to paint outdoors under a vast nuturing southwest sky. I find the activity of painting to be naturally meditative. I intentionally spend lots of non-painting time contemplating work-in-progress. Painting for me is a way of personal storytelling, just as my writing personal essays is. Painting and writing are honest forms of sharing my feelings of remembered or imagined places and times. I do not know what truths may reside within me until I push some paint around and then step back to take it all in.

Rarely do I place human figures in my compositions. Instead, I let the gestures and textures left behind in the art work suggest a human pesence. In the GolfScapes, the flagstick is a metaphor for a human presence that is goal seeking.

My emotional response to the still visible acts of having rolled and pushed the paints and gels around is that of a sky and earth that is full of felt, flowing energy, that is otherwise often unseen. I welcome this energized presence, especially when the shapes are relatively flat silhouettes and abstracted. For me, the tactile surface textures suggest images of eternal change and renewal and a connection among all things seen and unseen.

Juxtaposed to this flow of energy is an intention to invoke a serenity into the paintings that encourages an extended, contemplative viewing of the finished art. My desire is that the art be subtle enough to allow a long relationship with the viewer, just as my personal response to the natural, wide-open landscape is a long-lasting feeling of strength and honesty in its simplicity and spaciousness.