Olive Grove Greece

Anastasia Gklava is an expert at applying gold leaf. Her oil painting technique is fresh and honest. Her artwork will brighten and add energy to any space. Gklava was born in 1966, Greece. She is a figurative artist largely working in oil on canvas and wood, with gold leaf and various other materials. She studied under the academician Manuela Armada at Fine Art Academy in Madrid. In 2014–16, she was selected to represent and exhibit Greek landscapes at the Eleftherios Venizelos National Airport of Athens. What intrigues her most and is the central theme of Gklava’s work, is nature and in particular trees. Capturing what she calls "the secret life of trees,'' her brightly colored subjects are surrounded by gold, which gives a dramatic and pristine effect. Traditionally used in Byzantine art, gold conveys a sacred, warm and divine feeling. Her simple and straightforward compositions draw our attention to the miracle of nature and it’s elegance. Gklava paints her iconic trees in olive groves and orchards near her summer house in Asproneri, Greece. She resists the temptation of photographs and loves painting mostly outside, on the location where the colors are more accurate and true, transferring this beauty to the viewer. "Beauty is like silence,” Gklava says, “One had better watch it than talk about it, or it’s lost.”

It could be argued that cave walls were the canvases for the world’s first landscape paintings, which depict and elevate natural scenery through art, but there is a richer history to consider.

The Netherlands was home to landscapes as a major theme in painting as early as the 1500s, and ink-on-silk paintings in China featured mountains and large bodies of water as far back as the third century. Greeks created vast wall paintings that depicted landscapes and grandiose garden scenes, while in the late 15th century and early 16th century, landscapes were increasingly the subject of watercolor works by the likes of Leonardo da Vinci and Fra Bartolomeo.

The popularity of religious paintings eventually declined altogether, and by the early 19th century, painters of classical landscapes took to painting out-of-doors (plein-air painting). Paintings of natural scenery were increasingly realistic but romanticized too. Into the 20th century, landscapes remained a major theme for many artists, and while the term “landscape painting” may call to mind images of lush, grassy fields and open seascapes, the genre is characterized by more variety, colors and diverse styles than you may think. Painters working in the photorealist style of landscape painting, for example, seek to create works so lifelike that you may confuse their paint for camera pixels. But if you’re shopping for art to outfit an important room, the work needs to be something with a bit of gravitas (and the right frame is important, too).

Adding a landscape painting to your home can introduce peace and serenity within the confines of your own space. (Some may think of it as an aspirational window of sorts rather than a canvas.) Abstract landscape paintings by the likes of Korean painter Seungyoon Choi or Georgia-based artist Katherine Sandoz, on the other hand, bring pops of color and movement into a room. These landscapes refuse to serve as a background. Elsewhere, Adam Straus’s technology-inspired paintings highlight how our extreme involvement with our devices has removed us from the glory of the world around us. Influenced by modern life and steeped in social commentary, Straus’s landscape paintings make us see our surroundings anew.

Whether you’re seeking works by the world’s most notable names or those authored by underground legends, find a vast collection of landscape paintings on 1stDibs.