Claude Gellee

 Claude Gellee or Lorrain was a french painter. He painted landscapes sometimes with a few figures in them however usually they were disregarded and as he continued to paint the involvement of figures became less and less. Gellee included figures in his scenes to give his work more of a biblical feel, so people felt that they were looking at work that was a representation of a bible story. His work often included the sun which at the time was quite a rare thing.

The reason I am looking at Gellees work is because he is mentioned in the landscape chapter of David Bates book, Photography: The Key Concepts. He combined the best parts of places he visited to create a new landscape, much like I have been doing in my work. Gellees work mainly focused on buildings rather than natural landscapes however the process and idea is the same.

'His scenes were drawn from nature but collated into singular idealised landscape compositions'

'perhaps the first 'virtual' landscapes'

I like Gellees work, the scenes seem warm and happy. They look so peaceful, most of this is to do with the way the sky is painted. I found this when I started to create these collages, the way the sky looks has a massive impact on the whole scene. Pink skies create more of a dreamy feel where as bright blue skies make things seem a bit more realistic. I like how the scenes flow really well together and you can't tell that these places aren't real. Every painting looks realistic and that is how I want people to feel when they see my work.