Conveying a Feeling

In her landscape paintings, Olga Rybalko captures the sights, smells and sounds of nature

In her landscape paintings, Olga Rybalko captures the sights, smells and sounds of nature

My art is all about capturing a place—not the exact look but how it feels to be there. When I paint, I feel like the sights, smells and sounds of the place surround me. I want the viewer to feel that same sensation, a sense of awe at the natural world. It is the elusive emotion that I think most landscape painters strive to convey, and I’d like to share with you some ways that I have discovered for capturing this on canvas. A sense of depth is one of the main aspects in a painting that can truly inspire that awe, that feeling of gazing at a towering mountain even though it’s painted on a measly 11-by-14-inch panel. I use several techniques to try to capture depth in a landscape, but firstly, the planning stages of an artwork are crucial to ensure success in the finished piece. For me, the artwork begins with gathering reference photos while travelling. I spend a lot of time looking at a scene to find the right vantage point, planning the composition and getting different shots as the landscape changes between the morning and evening light. This particular

composition for the demonstration was a lucky shot that didn’t need much adjustment apart from the top of the rock structure, which needed some more breaking up. As none of us are perfect, neither is nature, and one has to use their own judgement while moving around trees and rocks that are not quite in the right place. I look for some key elements that I know will make for a good painting: strong foreground shapes, complementary colours and a sense of distance. Another important aspect of the composition is finding a way of walking into a painting. I try to ensure that the viewer’s eyes can follow a clear path into the painting and focus on some point in the distance. If there are elements that can distract or block this path, I will change them or remove them completely. I find that approaching the subject matter with the maximum level of scrutiny from the beginning will help avoid changes and mistakes later on in the painting process. While on location, I will often draw little thumbnails consisting of dark, mid and light tones to figure out where those values should lie in a painting. This is often followed by a small colour study at the scene, which helps capture the natural colour nuances that are often lost in a photograph. I will be working on a landscape that

has a great deal of depth and strong compositional lines. I love using thin layers of transparent acrylic colour to create texture and depth in the painting. By adding layer upon layer I can create a lot of depth in a painting, fade things away until they feel like they’re at the right distance. It’s almost like adding salt to a dish pinch by pinch and tasting in between until it’s just right. A lot of my process involves constant push and pull between light and dark, detail and abstraction, saturated and muted tones. This pursuit of the right balance is what I love about my painting process. I often start by using a very limited palette of burnt sienna, yellow ochre, ultramarine blue, Prussian blue and titanium white. This helps me keep the painting in a very natural and somewhat muted range of colour until I’m ready to add the punch of more saturation in the focal areas of a piece. I will often bring in colours like quinacridone magenta, phthalo blue and cadmium yellow after the halfway point in a painting. Another key element to creating a sense of depth is the balance between soft and hard edges. I often try to use hard edges and areas of high contrast as anchor points in a painting to lead the viewer’s eye on a journey through the piece. I also intentionally soften the edges toward the outside of the canvas, as those can sometimes distract from the focal point. This also mimics the way the human eye normally sees the world. It is hard to focus on what is in the middle of your line of sight and on the periphery simultaneously, as well as the foreground and distant objects. Therefore, one of those things has to take prevalence in terms of detail and sharpness given to it. This largely depends on which areas of the painting I want to be the focus. I escape my inner perfectionist

by using mostly rollers and palette knives—tools that don’t allow for much detail. This helps me focus on the overall abstract qualities of the painting rather than how true it is to the reference. I use rubber rollers (or brayers) to layer on the colours, which creates unique marks and brings out the natural texture of the canvas. I find that picking up on the texture of the canvas I can create much more random and natural marks that resemble highlights on a rock, the shimmer of light reflecting off the ocean, or soft clouds in the sky. Everything is about ensuring that the viewer’s experience, upon seeing my work, is an immersive one. I want them to imagine walking into that spot and hearing the sound of the waves, smelling the salt air and spending time there just as I did. Time and time again, I hear people say about my work that they recognize the place even though it might be a different one than the actual spot depicted. It’s these triggers of memory, bringing them back to the experience of having visited a beautiful beach or a mountain hike that make my painting journey so rewarding. Being able to connect with the audience over the love of being in nature and sharing my vision with them, while giving them freedom to contemplate the landscape on their own.

The Bones of Adventure, acrylic on canvas, 24 x 48" (61 x 122 cm) It was important to keep the contrast low in the sky with such a busy foreground in the painting. Capturing the massive pile of logs on the beach was like solving a puzzle of highlights, cool shadows and detail.

Westward Dreaming, acrylic on canvas, 36 x 60" (91 x 152 cm) In this piece I wanted to capture the constant rush of the foaming waves backlit by the sun. The green, translucent nature of the breaking wave was the key element for this painting.

Chesterman Sunset, oil on linen, 11 x 14" (28 x 36 cm) Transitions from cool to warm colour— or light to dark—were key in creating a dynamic feeling in this painting.

The Broken Spell, acrylic on canvas, 24 x 48" (61 x 122 cm) I love painting water reflections, and the wet sand in this scene provided almost an exact mirror image of the landscape above. The muted colours keep it distinctly Northwest Coast, and the salt spray from the ocean provides the much needed recession of tones into the distance.

Ebb and Flow, acrylic on canvas, 15 x 30" (38 x 76 cm) The wet sand in this piece provided a large area where I could play with abstraction and texture. Meanwhile, the light reflections guide the viewer into the sunlit horizon.

A Morning’s Kiss, acrylic on canvas, 36 x 36" (91 x 91 cm) I wanted to capture the morning light as it just starts to spill over the horizon and wash everything in golden tones. The rocky shore provided some interesting shapes to play with in the foreground and a good counterweight for the dramatic clouds in the sky.