Artistic Frontiers

Step outside. Breathe deeply. Listen. What do your senses tell you? What is the season? The weather? The time of day? Now imagine you are trying to capture every detail about this experience in an artwork. Can you illustrate the smells, sounds, and even the temperature?

Artists have always tried to depict the natural world. Some aim to capture the beauty they see, while others hope their art will educate people or even inspire change.

Go outside and take a deep breath. Close your eyes and listen. What do you hear, feel, and smell? Now open your eyes. What do you see? Imagine you are trying to share this experience in an artwork. How would you illustrate it? The artists featured on these pages depict the beauty of the natural world in their artwork.

In the mid-1800s, a group of artists called the Hudson River School painters began making landscapes showing the American wilderness. They sketched outdoors, documenting towering mountains, tiny insects, and everything in between. Then they returned to their studios to complete wall-sized paintings.

Thomas Cole was an English-born American artist. His 1836 painting above, often called The Oxbow, shows a river valley. In the middle ground, he paints tamed farmland. He juxtaposes this pastoral land with a lush forest in the foreground. Above, he uses energetic brushwork to depict a passing storm. At the bottom, Cole adds a tiny self-portrait showing his likeness painting the scene. He invites viewers to consider nature’s power, its potential, and humans' place within.

The Hudson River School painters were a group of artists working in the mid-1800s. They made landscape paintings of the American wilderness. First, they went outdoors and made sketches. They drew mountains, insects, and everything in between. Then they made large paintings based on their sketches.

Thomas Cole was an American artist. His 1836 painting above is often called The Oxbow. It shows a river valley. In the middle ground, Cole paints well-kept farmland. He juxtaposes this with a wild forest in the foreground. He paints a storm above the forest. Cole adds a tiny self-portrait of himself painting the scene at the bottom. He wants us to consider nature’s power and our place within it.

In the 20th century, American photographer Ansel Adams made some of the country’s most remote—and stunning—vistas accessible to the public. Born in San Francisco in 1902, Adams first visited California’s Yosemite National Park when he was 14 years old.

Adams’s career brought him to numerous national parks. Many of the places he photographed required challenging hikes—and the adventurous artist did so while carrying more than 40 pounds of photography and hiking equipment. Adams believed in “the value of true wilderness,” and he worried that Americans were losing their connection with nature. Photographs, such as his 1936 Half Dome, Merced River, Winter, Yosemite National Park, California, above, demonstrate the country's spectacular beauty and the importance of preserving it for future generations. The artist says he never took a photograph to promote a specific environmental cause, but he was “greatly pleased when a picture [he] made becomes useful to an important cause.”

Ansel Adams was an American photographer. He was born in San Francisco in 1902. He made some of the country’s most beautiful landscapes available to the public. He photographed national parks, including Yosemite National Park in California. When he hiked in the woods to take pictures, he often carried more than 40 pounds of photography and hiking gear!

Adams worried that Americans were losing their connection with nature. He photographed the outdoors to share the country’s beauty with the world. Half Dome, Merced River, Winter, Yosemite National Park, California, above, shows a rock formation in Yosemite in 1938. The artist says he never took a photo with a certain environmental issue in mind. But he was “greatly pleased when a picture [he has] made becomes useful to an important cause.”

Although Cole and Adams worked in different mediums, they both made representational artworks—depicting what they saw in realistic ways. But art inspired by nature doesn’t always have to look exactly like nature. American artist Alma Thomas began her career as an art teacher in Washington, D.C. She started out painting realistically. But after she retired from teaching, she began experimenting with an abstract technique, aiming to represent mood using a luminous color palette and lyrical patterns.

Thomas visited parks in Washington to study flowers before painting them. She described “watching the leaves and flowers tossing in the wind as though they were singing and dancing,” and wanted to capture that feeling in her work. She made watercolor sketches to prepare for acrylic paintings such as her 1969 Iris, Tulips, Jonquils, and Crocuses, above. “The use of color in my paintings is of paramount importance to me,” explains Thomas, who studied color theory throughout her career.

How is Thomas’s painting similar to Cole's The Oxbow and Adams's Half Dome, Merced River, Winter, Yosemite National Park, California? What ideas about nature does each artist convey?

Cole and Adams both depicted nature in realistic ways. But art inspired by nature doesn’t always look exactly like nature. American artist Alma Thomas began her career as an art teacher in Washington, D.C. At the time, she made realistic paintings. But after she retired from teaching, she began creating abstract art. She captured mood using bright colors and patterns.

Thomas studied flowers in parks. She described “watching the leaves and flowers tossing in the wind as though they were singing and dancing.” She expresses that feeling in her 1969 Iris, Tulips, Jonquils, and Crocuses, above. Real flowers inspired the colors in her painting, even though the work is abstract. How do each of these artists share ideas about nature in a unique way?