What do you think is the most popular art subject?

For years I’ve wondered what most people prefer when it comes to hanging artwork on their walls. I went online and clicked around for days visiting various sites from framing to high end galleries and everything in between.

After days of research what I found was that the highest rated, most popular and most purchased pieces of art were landscapes.

Landscapes!

Yes, landscapes. I’d completely forgotten about them as a subject to paint or photograph but when I thought about it remember being inspired by many beautiful paintings that were landscapes.

I’ve never been big on producing landscapes but I decided to give myself a project to photograph some landscapes and then either paint them or use the photos in a painting.

There is the mindset of the idea to paint what you, the artist wants to create and damn the public. A viewpoint I well understand, but I like the idea of doing it both ways. What I want to paint and also filling a need and want by the public.

Here are a few photos I’ve taken for possible paintings.

This photo was taken in April 2009 near San Diego, California. It’s on a golf course that for the life of me I can’t remember the name of. The tree at the bottom set against the almost perfect sky looks and feels very calming and I think could translate into a nice piece of work.

This photo was taken in June as I was driving up to Monterey, California an stopped to photograph the scenery. I think the back roads of California have some of the most interesting and scenic areas in the world.

This is a photograph I took on the same trip only coming back from Monterey in the late afternoon and saw this at Moro Bay on the Coast highway and had to stop for it. Notice the Maxfield Parrish coloring and the moon in the distance.