7 landscape paintings we’re keeping on our Heart list this week

At Arts to Hearts Project, we love art in all its forms, but every now and then, we find ourselves drawn to a particular kind of work. This week, we found ourselves drawn to landscape paintings and the many ways artists bring the natural world onto canvas.

There is something about a good landscape painting that holds your attention. A stretch of open land, a quiet forest, a road disappearing into the distance, or a hillside catching the last of the afternoon light, these scenes may feel familiar, but in the hands of an artist, they can become something entirely different.

Perhaps that is what we love most about landscape painting. It reminds us to notice things we might otherwise pass by: the changing colors of the sky, the shape of trees against the horizon, or the way a familiar place can feel different depending on the light, the season, or even our own mood.

The paintings we have gathered for this week’s Heartlist stayed with us for different reasons. Some caught our attention through color and texture, while others made us curious about the places and stories behind them. But each one made us pause for a little longer.

So, this week, we are celebrating landscape paintings that caught our eye and reminded us just how differently artists can see the world around them.

01. Follow the Day by David Brian Smith @davidbriansmith1

First on our heart list this week is Follow the Day by David Brian Smith, and this one is unlike any landscape painting we have seen in a while. A sun blazes in concentric rings of rainbow colour across the entire upper canvas, a lone tree stands catching that psychedelic light, a winding path leads somewhere quiet below, and the whole scene vibrates with a warmth and intensity that is impossible to look away from.

Painted in oil and gold leaf on herringbone linen a nod to the traditional country fabrics of the British countryside where David grew up this piece is both deeply rooted in place and completely unlike anything that place would conventionally produce. David was born in Wolverhampton in 1981 into a Shropshire farming family, studied at Wolverhampton University and Chelsea College of Art and Design, and has spent his career building a practice that transforms the English countryside into something dreamlike, psychedelic, and quietly mythological.

Give him a follow and explore the full body of his work it is a world worth getting lost in.

2.Fantasy Mystical Portal and Dreamlike Horizon by Gregory Lysak @gregorylysak

Fantasy Mystical Portal and Dreamlike Horizon by Gregory Lysak is our number two this week a landscape that could not exist anywhere except in the space between reality and pure imagination. A glowing portal blazes at the centre of the composition, deep orange and gold burning through dramatic blues and teals, light reflecting across water below, architectural fragments rising from the scene like something between a ruin and a dream. It is epic and atmospheric and completely immersive the kind of image that pulls you in before you have even worked out what you are looking at.

Gregory is a Ukrainian artist and architect who works across painting, CGI and digital tools, combining oil paint textures, photoshop and AI assistance to build worlds that sit somewhere between fine art and pure imagination. His work draws on abstract painting, futurism and science fiction, and every piece on his page has this same quality landscapes that could not exist anywhere except somewhere far more interesting than here.

Give him a follow and explore everything he has been building his world is vast and unlike anything else out there.

3. Wild Flowers by Nina Volk @ninavolkartist

Third on our heart list this week is Wildflowers by Nina Volk a clifftop landscape in cool greys until those wildflowers arrive and change everything. A dramatic coastline tumbles down toward a churning grey sea, and then in the foreground completely unexpected and completely electric a burst of deep pink wildflowers pushes up through the rocks. That colour against all that cool grey is the whole painting. It stops you before you have even registered why.

Nina is a Melbourne based watercolourist with a background in architecture she studied at art school for eight years before completing a BA in Architecture at the University of Melbourne, worked in architecture and fashion until 2019, and then committed entirely to watercolour. In just a few years she has become one of the most sought-after contemporary watercolourists in Australia, now serving as President of the Watercolour Society of Victoria. She paints the world not as it appears but as it is felt, and this painting does exactly that.

Give her a follow and see everything she has been making her work is unlike most watercolour you will come across.

04. Dream of Dusk by Sean William Randall @seanwilliamrandall

Our fourth pick this week is Dream of Dusk by Sean William Randall a landscape that feels like a memory of somewhere you have never been. A burning orange horizon sits above a dark, intricate landscape, a solitary white tree glowing in the middle distance, a path winding quietly toward it through blue-tinged undergrowth. The contrast between that flat, almost unreal orange above and the detailed darkness below creates a tension that is both deeply familiar and completely strange.

Sean is a Canadian-born visual artist based in Winnipeg, Manitoba, who left a career as an architect in 1992 to devote himself entirely to painting and that architectural precision is visible in the structure of every composition he makes. His work toys with subtle surrealism, uses aesthetic interruptions to play with illusion and depth, and leaves just enough space for the viewer to get completely lost in the mystery. This painting is exactly what his practice promises eerie, magnetic, and impossible to look away from.

Give him a follow and explore everything he has made every painting on his page has this same quality.

05. A Quiet Place by Vineet Nakoti @vineetnakoti

We placed A Quiet Place by Vineet Nakoti at number five this week a surreal landscape that feels like a dream you have not quite woken up from. A large pink lily dominates the foreground, impossibly oversized against a vast open landscape, a small figure lying quietly beside it, birds drifting across a moody sky, a green hill rising in the distance. It is surreal without announcing itself as surreal the whole scene has the specific quality of a dream that felt entirely real while you were in it.

Vineet is an Indian artist whose oil on linen practice sits at the intersection of landscape and inner world his work does not paint the land as it appears but as it is felt from the inside, where scale shifts and meaning accumulates in unexpected places. This piece is 10 by 16 inches and carries an enormous amount of feeling for its size. The kind of painting that asks you to slow down and stay a while.

Give him a follow and see everything he has been making his world is quietly extraordinary.

06. Poppies in Bloom by Sofia Sharbat @studiosharbat

Sixth on our Heartlist this week is Poppies in Bloom by Sofia Sharbat, a painting that immediately caught our attention with its incredible use of colour. Rolling hills in shades of deep purple and warm orange stretch across the canvas, while a group of bright red poppies fills the foreground. There is so much happening in the painting, yet everything comes together beautifully, giving you a real sense of the warmth and energy of the California landscape.

Sofia is a California-based modern impressionist painter whose work comes from her close connection with the landscapes around her. Working with both oil and acrylic, she is particularly interested in light, colour, and those brief moments when a familiar place suddenly looks or feels completely different. Rather than trying to recreate every detail exactly as she sees it, Sofia uses expressive brushwork and rich colour to capture what it felt like to experience that particular moment.

And that is exactly what we love about Poppies in Bloom. It feels bright, warm, and completely full of life. The bold colours pull you in first, but the longer you look, the more you begin to notice the movement of the hills, the changing light, and the small details throughout the landscape. It is a wonderful example of how a landscape painting can take a place and turn it into something deeply personal.

You can explore Sofia’s full gallery and see more of her work on her website.

07. Villiarta de San Juan by Fermín García Sevilla @fermin.garcia.sevillaartist

And our absolute favourite on this week’s heart list is Villiarta de San Juan by Fermín García Sevilla and it has been sitting with us since the moment we first saw it. A lush green meadow stretches across the canvas, red poppies dotting the foreground, dark trees framing the scene on either side, a church tower rising quietly in the distance against a soft pale sky. It is classical and completely alive at the same time the kind of landscape painting that makes you feel like you could step into it and stay there.

Fermín was born in Tomelloso, Spain in 1961, a self-taught painter who grew up under the influence of his uncle, the great master Antonio López and that lineage is visible in every mark he makes. He is now one of the most recognised landscape painters in Spain, with work held in museums and institutions across the country and in private collections throughout Europe, Asia and America.

He holds over a hundred national and international painting prizes, has painted almost entirely plein air throughout his career, and describes painting as both a state of the soul and an intellectual exercise. This piece proves both of those things completely.

Give him a follow and spend time with his full body of work thirty years of extraordinary landscape painting, all of it worth seeing.

That is our Heartlist for this week. Seven landscapes, seven artists, and seven completely different ways of looking at the world around us. Landscape painting has been around for centuries, and somehow, artists continue to find something new within it — a different light, a different perspective, a different feeling. We hope you take some time to discover these artists, follow their work, and see what else they have been creating.

And before you go, we have one more thing to share. Arts to Hearts Magazine Issue 14: The Summer We Remember is currently open for submissions, with the open call closing on August 2nd.

With thirteen editions published and more than 1,000 artists featured, Arts to Hearts Magazine brings together artists and their stories from around the world, with global distribution through Barnes & Noble and Amazon. For Issue 14, we are asking artists to think about summer in a way that feels personal to them. It could be a memory you still return to, an emotion you associate with a particular time, or simply your own version of a summer you remember.

If you have a piece that feels right for this edition, we would love to see it. Submit your work before August 2nd.