Taking liberties, Spring Celebration by Everglades artist Jo-Ann Sanborn

Spring Celebration, 2012, Jo-Ann Sanborn

acrylic on canvas, 20"x24"

When a landscape artist sets up on location, there's the whole big view to consider.   Everything within sight is fair game for adding to a painting.  To make it all fit on a canvas is no easy task. 

In addition, the sun moves through the sky.  Light changes, clouds come and go as the day progresses, and if we're not careful, we'll end up chasing shadows with our paint.

So we're forced from the start to make choices. What to install in a painting, and what to leave out can be the artist's choice alone.  

Unlike the portrait painter who must please their subject, a landscape artist is unlikely to hear from the subjects that "it's  not a good likeness." 

As long as we retain a "sense of place", we can choose to highlight certain features, push the color, or leave out a less desirable tree.  If we decide to take liberties with the colors or the placement, or leave something out completely, who's to complain?