THE VIEW FROM ABOVE

For many years I made my living as an aerial cartographer, drawing plan and contour maps from aerial photos. As a result, I became intrigued with seeing the earth from the sky, and it was only a matter of time before I began to incorporate this perspective into my landscapes.

Aerial perspective is different than traditional land-based perspective, and a simple thing like changing the angle of the camera to the earth can make huge differences in the feel and effectiveness of a painting. To explore this I have split my Farmscape work into two types: Bird's-Eye View and Topographic. The Bird's-Eye View uses an oblique perspective where the scene is viewed at a slight angle instead of straight down. In the Topographic View the camera looks straight downward.