Nature Scene Backgrounds in Portraits

I have long been fond of including nature scene backgrounds in my portrait oil paintings. I think this preoccupation started with my enjoyment of Bob Ross’ Joy of Painting; like with many painters, his show provided some inspiration for me to start painting in the first place. He always made painting seem more accessible, and to someone without training or experience, that is just the message I needed to motivate me to pick up a paint brush. So, even though my favorite subject matter is portraits of people, I love including some alla prima Bob Ross-style backgrounds in my painting scenes.

I have many examples of nature backgrounds in my portraits already shared to this site, but the featured painting in this post is of a somewhat concerned-looking man in front of a seascape and village. This portrait study was painted on 12 X 12 oil paper and was my 243rd overall. I’ll follow my standard format here, which is to share an image of the painting, the Instagram time lapse, and some verbiage specific to the piece. Then, I’ll embed the YouTube discussion video, including another brief writeup on the topic, materials used, and some other hopefully useful information. I’ll wrap the post up by sharing the YT Shorts time lapse and some other similar painting videos.

Shop link related to this piece:

• 
  Concerned Man with Oceanside Village Landscape, Giclee Art Print
  $85
  Buy via Etsy

This painting is one of my favorites, and is currently framed and hanging in the room where I paint. Sometimes it’s hard for me to separate the experience of creating a painting from the actual end result, and maybe this piece exemplifies that. It’s probably not one of my most technically sound pieces; it’s unbalanced (heavy on the left side) so the composition isn’t great, and there’s definitely some un-subtle things I’ve done particularly in the main subject’s face. However, I had a lot of fun painting it, and the vibe was great while it was in process. I had my family in the room with me, we were chatting about nonsense, and having a nice Saturday afternoon. This is sort of feeling draws me back to painting often, and is certainly a factor that makes me like this painting so much.

The video I’ve embedded above in this post is all about repeating these concepts simply for the joy of it – you’re doing it not with an objective in mind, but rather just because it’s fun. Although I do paint with a purpose (to improve and develop particular skills), ultimately enjoyment is the reason that trumps them all. Painting is just a fun thing to do – I mentioned this nice painting vibe that links with the in-the-moment experience, but the act of painting itself is so enjoyable just by itself. Bob Ross’ show had a completely on the mark name! There really is a lot of joy to be found in painting, as cheesy as that could be to say out loud.

Here are some additional details of the video I shared on YouTube, including materials used and some other information. I’ll also embed the Shorts video, although it’s kind of redundant to the Instagram Reels post, as I typically just share the same edited vertical time lapse on both platforms. The main video I’ve embedded is around the usual amount, and is similar in format and presentation to some of the others I’ve done (also linked after the timestamps).