Landscapes in Oil: A Contemporary Guide to Realistic Painting in the Classical Tradition

For those of us who are in awe of the Hudson River School of landscape painting from the 19th century, Landscapes in Oil is the instruction book we've been waiting for. I believe it will eventually become a classic for landscape painters.Salaz provides plenty of theory and illustrates his points with examples from his own and other contemporary landscape painters' work. These gorgeous paintings are both inspiring and instructional. You can learn a lot just by studying them closely. One of the most helpful concepts in the book is when Salaz overlays diagrams and sketches on top paintings to show what he's talking about, similar to what football announcers do on TV. It works well.The Hudson River School painters intersected with philosophical movements in the 19th century, and Salaz includes some of the quotes and ideas that motivated them. It's important to know this background to understand what they were trying to achieve. The spiritual qualities of their paintings cannot be overlooked. Salaz explains how to raise your paintings from simply "pretty pictures" to works of art with a timeless quality. The luminous quality of their paintings is explained and Salaz's pointers on light are one of the gems in the book.If you're a pure beginner in landscape painting, you won't find anything on how to paint rocks, trees, water, mountains, or clouds. Salaz apparently expects you to have the basic skills mastered. This book is a guide on how to raise them to a higher level.Now two important things to note. First, since Salaz is painting in the "classical" tradition and was trained that way, he does not mention using reference photos. Those were not available to the Hudson River School painters, for the most part. There's a lot of en plein air painting to make studies and sketches. I personally believe using reference photos is not cheating but is essential in capturing important details and fleeting lighting effects. Use every tool available to you to get good results.The second point is that while this book talks only about oil painting, the principles will apply equally well to acrylics, which thousands of us are using today. Again, oils are classical, acrylics are modern. Acrylics behave differently than oils. The colors also tend to be more vivid and less mellow, since oils can be thinned with linseed oil, which yellows over time. Even so, the acrylic painter will find much to inspire him or her. There's a wealth of experience and technique in this book to explore.I highly recommend Landscapes in Oil. It's the book I wish I'd had 50 years ago when I started painting. Thanks to Ken Salaz for sharing his knowledge and talent with the rest of us. Very well done!

Not just a book that shows the classical landscape painting but a book about the philosophy of art as expression of Beauty. Quote from the book:An artist must cultivate the mind of a philospher, the heart of a poet, the hands of a surgeon, and the vision of an eagle. ;The world of illusions in both painting and magic could describe the magnitude and beauty of existens better than words.

I purchased this book and I have read it cover to cover and have reviewed its pages for over a month now. For the last several decades I have been an Artist, Art educator and a business woman who runs a successful Art Center Studio. From the vantage point of an Artist and Art Educator, this book is GOLD. Simply put, YOU WILL NOT FIND A GREATER BOOK ON LANDSCAPE PAINTING IN PUBLICATION ANYWHERE. Pay no attention to the few haters here in the reviews - just look at the quality of his work in the the sample images provided. It is truly a "Never before seen" exposition of how to paint landscapes with the most thorough, clear explanations I have ever come across during my years as an educator. Thanks to the comprehensive writing and images in the book, I am able to teach beginning students and highly advanced students how to improve their work. Mr. Salaz provides numerous examples from Master Painters and then proceeds to break down their techniques in a simple, clear format - both with visual aids, writing and exercises. Unlike other books on landscape painting - he provides 4 step by step photographic instructional demos of his paintings that cover everything from start to finish. Did I mention that the whole book is an explosion of colorful paintings! He himself is a master painter who is an excellent teacher. The book even goes further - Mr. Salaz provides the reader with the deep spiritual and philosophical background for the genesis of the great Masterworks in landscape. He covers the writings of Ralph Waldo Emerson, Thoreau, Lenonardo Da Vinci, John Muir, Plato, Aristotle...and more. If you liked the Art Spirit by Robert Henri, then you will love Salaz's writing as well. Completely inspirational. This book will be known in years to come as the definitive and most comprehensive book to ever be written on landscape painting.

There is so much valuable information in this book, I don't know where to begin. The book is a treatise on the author's love of beauty through the language of art. He begins with the poets and philosophers who inspired poetic realism: painting in the realistic genre but at another level of reality, where the soul speaks. The Transcendentalists, Emerson, Whitman, Thoreau, Muir all opened literal doorways for the visionary American painters of the 19th century. The book defines the difference between a pretty landscape and one that goes further into a deeper understanding of beauty and truth. Fundamentals of all the elements of painting are thoroughly explained with text, illustrations and examples of paintings. All these things Salaz generously shares with the reader, the ultimate goal of making us better painters. There are beautifully illustrated sections on value, light and form, with clear explanations of color wheel, hue, value, and chroma.Most interesting is Salaz's explanation of the psychological elements of composition. A good composition can bring the viewer close to the artist's vision; a wrong one can push the viewer away.Putting forth the techniques and painting "secrets" of the Hudson River School Painters was no easy task. Ken Salaz took up the challenge and successfully rendered them in this lovely book. I highly recommend "Landscapes in Oils" to all landscape painters who want to become better at their craft.