Simplifying the Landscape

In today’s episode I’m exploring abstract landscape simplification.

If you’ve ever felt overwhelmed by the sheer amount of detail in a landscape—trees, shifting light, endless textures—you’re not alone. But abstract landscapes aren’t about painting every detail; they’re about capturing the essence of a scene. And the key to doing that? Breaking it down into shapes.

What You’ll Learn in This Episode:

🎨 Why simplifying a landscape into big, bold shapes makes your paintings more powerful.

🎨 How to see the landscape as shapes instead of details—using simple techniques like squinting.

🎨 How thumbnails, value studies and blocking in big shapes can set up a strong abstract composition.

Your Creative Challenge:

This week I challenge you to:

✅ Pick a landscape reference.

✅ Squint at it until you only see the biggest shapes.

✅ Sketch just three simple shapes—foreground, middle ground and background.

✅ Paint your scene using only those shapes first before refining details.

🎯 Bonus challenge: Limit your palette to just three colours for an extra layer of simplicity!

Join the Conversation!

I’d love to see how this challenge works for you! Share your piece in my Abstract Horizons Facebook Group. Let’s take the complexity out of composition and embrace big, bold shapes together!

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