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Leaf and Bark and Limb and Bough - Landscapes of Jerry Cutler
Gallery: "Return to Romanticism, 1998‑2001"
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The Return to Romanticism series (1997-2001) is about reviving aspects of 19th century painting. My first major landscapes were highly metaphorical and very personnel. But I became interested in the history and method of landscape painting and I began to look closely at examples in museums. I found that the landscape tradition has two major strains. The French strain, book-ended between Poussin and Corot, is classical and intimate with small pockets of landscape serving as groomed staged settings. The American strain, represented by Frederick Church, tends toward sweeping views, glowing sunsets and miniature figures overwhelmed by the scale of nature.
Taking a different route, the American painter Asher B. Durand combined those two models and has recently served as an inspiration for my work. His views are intimate, with glades, pools, gnarled trees, rotting logs and light leaking in from the tree tops.
As I became interested in Romantic painting I also began drawing the flora around me and hiking into state parks to find ideas for pictorial elements. Since 1997 my work has become more naturalistic, more traditional and more local. I have taken many ideas from the San Felasco State Park near Gainesville. I hike there regularly to draw the trees and sketch compositions. In that way I've become familiar with the local flora and its relation to water and earth. In that way I've built a vocabulary for painting. |
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