Quotes on Mountains and Clouds from "Composition of Outdoor Painting" by Edgar Payne

 

"Canyon de Chelly" by Edgar Payne

 

"High Sierra" by Edgar Payne

"If we decide to make a specialty of painting hill or mountain subjects, we should study their characteristic forms as the figure painter studies the human figure. Height is one of the strongest points in hills or mountains. They are also massive and suggest solidity and permanence. These characteristics should be brought out when composing such subjects."

"One other important thing to remember when composing hills and mountains is that form extends from their top crests towards the painter as well as to the right and left of their peaks. Picturing this foreshortening is not an easy matter. The ridges and canyons are generally irregular and their form deceptive. Their general appearance is often like an upright flat place. The artist must use considerable ingenuity to foreshorten form, arrange values and color to create recession in hill and mountain pictures."

"There used to be a rule that wherever clouds are used in the composition in considerable quantities, their shadows should be placed on some part of the picture, and there is no laudable reason why this rule cannot be applied today."

"By shadowing the ground, placing the horizon or land contours low and keeping the proportions unequal are the main postulates in cloud compositions." 

To be continued