The Poetic Landscape: A Contemporary Visual and Psychological Exploration - Review

Arts & Activities, Dec, 2001 by Ivan E. Johnson, Jerome J. Hausman

[BOOK] THE POETIC LANDSCAPE: A Contemporary Visual and Psychological Exploration (2000; $24.95), by Elizabeth Mowry. Watson-Gutpill Publications, 770 Broadway, New York, NY 10003.

Many books have dealt with the art of landscape painting. Some have chronicled the works of particular artists while others have offered instructions in techniques or composition. Few have succeeded, as does Elizabeth Mowry, in dealing with the poetry of vision and the connecting of inner feelings with visual experience. The Poetic Landscape: A Contemporary Visual and Psychological Exploration can serve as a wonderful resource for middle- and high-school students. As the author puts it: "Poetic landscape has to do with mood, ideas, and design, all more ethereal than realistic. It moves beyond the craft of painting into a tenuous space where intellect and spirit direct technique."

The book is beautifully illustrated with paintings and pastels by the author who is a master pastelist. Her artworks are impressive. Throughout, there are quotations appropriate for the discussion at hand, for example, "... the aim of art is to represent the outward appearance of things but their inward significance" (Aristotle). What are conveyed are the joys of beholding and discovering: "I have learned that even the most ordinary things in nature are different every day. When I notice some new aspect of the most common things, the joy of this small discovery is a thrill more wondrous than when I come upon something unusual" (p. 22).

At a time when our students are engulfed with the images and sounds of a technological society, the ideas of this book bring us back to the learning and balance of our natural surroundings. As Mowry puts it (p. 146): "... the poetic in landscape painting is not something attained by grasping. It can only be harvested by a quiet eye and an exacting brush. It is a matter of getting beyond craft to the tenuous space where intellect and spirit direct technique."--J.J.H. For information about this publication, circle No. 386 on the Reader Service Card.