Weathered art – Why we feel at home in weathered landscapes

dbwaterman
Jul 27
4 min read

Updated: Sep 11

The language of weathered art

Weathered art in landscapes can be moving because of its imperfection and silence.

This art form can offer recognition and peace without explanation. A painting does not have to be cheerful and exuberant to touch you. On the contrary, we often find recognition in a landscape with space and silence through traces of weathering.

People often respond to my mixed media artworks with descriptions such as “art that feels like it has lived.” They often even want to touch the paintings to feel the texture.

Weathered art, imperfect art, with old layers, cracks, and weathered textures. Why do these elements appeal to us so much?

We live in an age in which images are perfected and pass by endlessly and quickly.

With my tranquil mixed media landscape paintings, I try to offer a counterbalance to this.

Through the deliberate use of weathered layers and imperfect images, I want to offer viewers another option. One of tranquility and the opportunity to catch their breath.

Images in which you can recognize things you have seen before and that make you feel good.

girl in purple on a swing, seen on the back, above light green meadow with purple and yellow flowers — MEADOW SWING, Mixed Media on canvas, 50 x 50 x 4 cm

My working method: building with layers

My mixed media weathered art is created by placing layers on top of each other. For this, I mainly use image transfers for the background. Prints of photos that I have taken myself and then printed on canvas. Even if it is a very large format!

This has been preceded by years of trial and error and refinement. And I am proud of that because it is a unique working method.

Then layers are added on top. Sometimes a second or third image transfer.

Or I continue the process immediately with acrylic paint. Often combined with collages or image transfers. By scratching, sanding, and polishing, underlying parts reappear. I continue until I am satisfied.

Finally, a figure painted with acrylic paint is added on top of these layers.

Then comes the finishing touch, with ink, watercolor, and pastel chalk.

Textures that evoke memories

A mixed media painting whose surface has been treated with scratches, stains, and all kinds of small imperfections raises questions.

Why has the image been deliberately made to look so weathered?

To evoke associations with time, loss, change, and life itself.

In this way, a work of art tells a story that everyone can relate to through their own feelings.

Each work is unique because it arises spontaneously during the creative process. It is never conceived but emerges by accident. That is the beauty of mixed media: it combines control with chance. The result is art with a story, without necessarily having a literal message.

Read more about this in my blog post about Weatherd Rough Textures

girl in green shorts runs along the textured beach against an abstract weathered sea background in pastel shades of light blue, light gray, aqua, orange and rust colors — MAKING MY FOOTPRINT, Mixed Media on canvas, 110 x 110 x 4 cm

Imperfection is reassuring

I create my mixed media paintings to evoke something in the viewer. I don't make them just to please or to hang something beautiful on the wall.

The imperfection in my works reassures people and shows that things don't have to be perfect to be considered beautiful.

That's reassuring and makes my work honest.

That's why my working method aligns so well with the concept of 'Wabi-Sabi'. A Japanese philosophy about the beauty of the ephemeral, the imperfect, and the incomplete.

A rust spot or a crack in a painting can be just as moving as a smile in a photo. It's not about what it literally represents, but about what it evokes. In that sense, my work is a form of imperfect art: weathered, layered—and therefore human.

Vast emptiness and inner space

I love creating vast, empty landscapes. Open spaces like swamps, fields, and parched steppe and desert plains. Seascapes.

Because I love the flat land with its endless vistas.

It offers space and freedom.

I will always choose this space, even though I also find forests and mountains beautiful. For me, nothing beats a vast, empty space. It makes me feel free. It provides space for reflection.

And by placing a solitary figure in this space, a story unfolds. This image raises questions for the viewer. Or a memory. But it also provides peace.

Also read my blog about the power of emptiness in composition.

The people in my mixed media artworks are symbolic. They represent all of us. Everyone can relate to them.

If you ever feel lost, searching, or simply want to recall a memory, the image feels familiar. Combined with weathered layers, peeling paint and texture, an image is created that feels like a memory, or a dream you almost forgot.

Monochrome man standing alone in yellowish dried-out steppe grass looking at rusty water tower, with grey green sky and seagulls — WATER'S WATCHMAN, Mixed Media on canvas, 50 x 50 x 4 cm

A mirror of our inner world

My spacious, weathered landscapes reflect something of our inner world. They are not superficial, simple, and perfect, but layered and quiet.

My landscapes aim to tell a story about how people feel.

In a world that often demands achievement and clarity, I want to offer another possibility with my paintings. They invite stillness. To feel instead of explaining.

Original art doesn't always have to be loud and colorful to resonate. It's precisely the quiet, imperfect image that can deeply touch. That's what I strive to create: art with feeling, art with a history, art in which weathered textures and old layers carry the story. And you can fill in that story yourself.