Scott Allen New Mexico Mesa Landscape

Originally from north-central Washington State, Scott Allen has practiced both art and architecture for over two decades. He received his Bachelor of Arts in Environmental Design from the University of Washington in 1980 and his Masters of Architecture from the Graduate School of Fine Arts at the University of Pennsylvania in 1982. Scott began exhibiting his art in 1997 and has created a body of paintings in both pastel and oil. Scott, previously a principal with the Seattle-based architectural firm Olson Sundberg Kundig Allen, founded Scott Allen Architecture in January 2009. He had once mentioned that “Growing up in eastern Washington gave me a deeply-branded visual memory that continues to be a strong source of imagery for my work. There is both clarity and mystery in that geography, with its seemingly endless spaces, sparse vegetation and often abrupt transitions from one geologic element to another. Light fills and illuminates these spaces as it plays off the land in endless variation. Peoples’ marks on these landscapes are especially obvious. Roads, buildings, and fields form strong counterpoints to the natural landscape. The eye is drawn to these kinds of elements, whether it is the verticality of grain elevators set against a flat field, a straight road or fence running through the land’s undulations, or an abandoned building. These marks can also suggest a history or narrative, and allow for individual interpretation in the mind of the viewer. As experiences, these landscapes can evoke feelings of loneliness and apprehension, as well as peaceful feelings of solitude and freedom, and it is within those emotions, and in their inherent contradictions, that the work is set.”

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.