I very much like those paintings you've collected, Adrienne. Those raw landscapes really call out to me, make me feel a connection between man and earth.

I am also attracted to landscapes, and began collecting a few when I purposely gave my home a craftsman feel and was drawn to the plein aire painters in the county where I grew up. The central coast of California with its live oaks and dry grassy hills verging on the blue Pacific Ocean is like glue for me, it sticks with me wherever I may roam.

I've assembled examples -- most of these are not my paintings, but similar works from artists whose paintings and pastels I've collected.

'Sunday Race', Ted Goerschner - oil. I like the way he captures the sky. The painting I have is of a storm coming over a deep canyon.
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Arturo Tello, oil (apologies for the tiny pics). I have a similar painting of the Santa Barbara coast. This one is looking west; in my painting the view is to the east at a surf break called Naples.
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'Early Harvest', Whitney Brooks Abbot, oil. The painting I have is more abstract with bold impasto strokes, but stand back and the hills and dirt roads appear.

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Not shown: Glenna Hartman, pastels. She captured the last sunrays of the day casting a glow over the late summer hills and live oaks outside Santa Ynez.

These last two are pastels by Katherine Plank, my northern California connection. She captures the more frigid landscapes of Sonoma County. The first is 'Clouds and Fence'; the last one is 'Winter in the Siskiyous', part of my collection.

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While I can't say I love everything these artists do, now and then they sink an arrow dead center to my heart.

Trying to get a larger photo of the Arturo Tello painting...

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Too bad you lost out on "Rushing Wind." It's absolutely fascinating but, being unschooled in these matters, I can't explain why. Perhaps it's the total avoidance of "prettiness," sentimentality, nostalgia, or nonrepresentational gimmicks. You can really hear the wind there, and the rustling of the grasses.

Wow, I think you both hit the nail on the head there, catkim and whitecap. I am always drawn to en plein air impressionist oils because they DON'T just add a tree here where there was none nor add a fluffy little cloud because it makes the artist happy to have it in "his" world. There was a lovely fellow years ago on a public television show who painted just such landscapes on TV for the audience to copy. It was entertaining but I don't think it was really art...

And I think that my dislike of artificial "prettiness" in art leads me to avoid the effusive style found in cottage gardens or those heavily reliant on annuals. I can certainly appreciate it in someone else's yard (especially the expense and maintenance) but that fussiness has no place in mine. Instead, I prefer to see realistic contours of trees, rocks, water and foliage in my home landscape, both inside and out.

I love the light in the Artur Tello painting and the immediacy of the brush strokes. Actually, all of your choices catkim share that same great visceral feeling. My personal favourite I think would be the one by Katherine Plank.

I was willing to sell my firstborn son in order to get "Rushing Wind" but I must have lost because I placed a greater value on him
than the auctioneer did, lol.

I've no doubt your modern art critic would very much prefer an arch, tongue-in-cheek depiction of some flabby, middle-age goat in a small red speedo, taking the sun. (Little inside joke there, catkim.)

CRAZY. Adrienne, you and I have the same taste in art also!

Here are two paintings by local artists that I own, followed by a painting a friend made of my "backyard". I think its safe to say my fast in art reflects my taste in landscaping.

I love this topic.
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Sorry about the size - I don't know how to change it!

lol @ whitecap

And yes drtygrl, we are so definitely separated at birth. I am so envious of your vista in that painting :)

Only a few landscapes, but definitely reflective of my desire for color in the yard. Just so happens that coincides with the needs of the birds and butterflies I attract.

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Oooh, I love the exuberance of the first one, especially in the background.

I've often wondered if people in dull, rainy climates or in the southern sun find that they are more drawn to vibrant colours in their home interiors than us "cold" northerners. Snow blindness can do that to you. Even the small sampling here rather highlights that.

Do you find that there can be regional differences when approaching the exterior landscape? Besides the obvious geographical and horticultural considerations, would ink be able to design for residents of California or bahia for Canadians and Brits with effectively equal ease or are there compromises to be made?

I don't know, I'm not a professional. But I suspect that if I were to ever move to the American desert, my current aesthetic perspective would probably change radically. I might even start to like the colour orange on anything other than my breakfast drink and Karin's house...

Of course there are regional differences that will impact landscape design, as well they should. Personally I feel more comfortable designing gardens in regions/climates that I've spent time living in, it's difficult to really grasp the subtleties unless you live with it, in my view. I find that it can be difficult to grasp the full measure of sites here in my own region if I only see/experience it in one season.

As to interior use of color, surely this is as much a personal preference as it is a regional or climate influenced preference? For my own house, I've got little art work actually hung on walls, but most is either photos or abstract paintings rather than landscapes. I have made a conscious decision to frame every view out my windows to have some focal view of plantings as an accent; lots of different palms or tropical looking foliage, bamboos or flowering subtropical shrubs and trees. Mainly because I am surrounded by closely set houses only 8 feet away and no unobstructed bay or hill views. Views out to favorite plantings from all windows allow me to enjoy my garden even when I don't set foot outdoors. One of the benefits of living here is that year round foliage and winter flowers are easily possible, even when its cold and windy/rainy outdoors.

I'm late to the party here.... :-)

Our interior art works are a mixed bag! Some original paintings (all horticultural in some way...)plus lots of prints of art we couldn't possibly afford! (Some are botanical prints, plus several prints of Emily Carr paintings, a print of Lawren Harris's North Shore Lake Superior, and a print of Picasso's Old Guitarist.) And then there is the 'gallery wall' of DH's photos of the garden....

The painting I like best is Bev Rodin's one of dogwoods. It hangs over the bed in the master bedroom and always makes me feel like I'm in a sunny woodland in spring! We'd like to get another one by her but she doesn't have a gallery that carries her stuff near here now for some reason.
A poor photo of the dogwoods:
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Here is a link that might be useful: Bev Rodin