HILLARY HOSTETLER PAINTING: Luminism

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Private country clubs make interesting painting subjects. They are living and breathing ecosystems composed of flora and fauna, yet they must be tended carefully by people or they will revert to true wilderness. Most golf courses are designed to look like 18th and 19th century idealized, Arcadian or sublime landscape paintings. They are usually quite beautiful, especially when it is early morning or late day when the quietude of a solitary walk in this constructed- natural setting is possible .
Today's golf is played on courses designed with a bit of the sublime. The look of adventure and danger, characterized by wide rugged vistas, the pounding surf of ocean front courses, water , dunes, marsh land , varied elevations and grand mountainous settings evoke the sublime American landscapes of Hudson River School Painters Frederick Edwin Church and Albert Bierstadt, as well as German 18th century landscape painter Casper David Friedrich . We may not be hunter gatherers or adventurous explorers of uncharted lands anymore, but we can still track the little white ball through these majestic landscapes.