Pony Express Medal

Valeriy Kagounkin is an honorary member of the Russian Artists Association and an active Academic, the highest title and honor an artist can achieve throughout a career. Valeriy Kagounkin was awarded two Big Gold medals from Art Academy society for two major exhibitions in 2015 and 2014 in Moscow Academy exhibition halls, Krasnoyarsk Art institute exhibition galleries and Abakan’s art schools. Additionally, he was awarded a silver medal #193 from the United Nations and International Information Academy Department of the Humanities for the substantial contribution to the culture. Valeriy was born in Siberia, into a Chuvash tribe, Russian native people, and was growing up taking care of cattle and horses as a kid before he attended his first children’s art school. It is no surprise that the American country lifestyle found fertile soil in the soul of a Siberian artist. Valeriy Kagounkin now lives and works in Sacramento, California telling stories and inspiring, through his works, about the people of the land. Valeriy’s paintings hang in the Contemporary Museum of Moscow, Russia (11 paintings) and the Historian Museum of Siberia (2 paintings).

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.