River Perspective, and about landscape painting:

Hello, all! This is Ellen Perantoni with another painting image, and today I want to answer some questions I often hear about landscape painting. Such as, whether my paintings show an actual place as the camera would record it, whether I paint from photos, whether I paint on site, and how I change the way things look (if I do).
My e-mail address is eperantoni@yahoo.com and more of my art can be seen (and commented on) on www.artwanted.com/EllenPerantoni
If I see a great view and I can paint it from an accessible spot big enough to set up my easel, I'll paint it there (en plein air, as the French impressionists put it, which means in the open air.) In the case of the painting at right, the viewpoint is in the middle of the river, only visible from a boat;
also, as the light is sunset light, it was changing too fast to do a painting on the spot or even get a good start; you can see that in less than an hour the sun will have sunk below the horizon and the scene will be dark.
So, in this case, I had to draw on my memory of the sunset, and I was aided by the huge number of sunset photos I've taken which I have in my archives.
Imagination and creativity play the main roles in the way I paint, even though the scenes are realistic--scenes that do exist in a certain place at a certain point in time...
The painting at right is entitled "River Perspective" and it's on a 12x24" stretched canvas. I've framed it in a heavy gold museum quality traditional frame. This work has been sold to a collector.
I live and paint in the town of Saugerties, a Hudson riverfront town that borders Woodstock on the west. I'm about a half mile from the Saugerties-Woodstock border. That's in the foothills of the famed Catskill mountains, about 2 hours north of the NYC metro area. For a free map to this self-guided tour of the studios, please contact me.
Or, I will show my art by appointment. If you purchase a work from an Internet photo without seeing the actual painting you can return it within 30 days if you are not delighted.
I also exhibit my art in galleries. For a list of the fine galleries that represent me and their locations please read more blog posts. You can see older posts and paintings going back to 2007 by clicking "Older Posts" at the bottom of this page.
Have a great week! I would love to hear from you.
And I'll explain more about landscape painting (as I do it) in future blog posts.
Ellen