James Perry Wilson

The American painter James P Wilson (1889-1976) is best known for the diorama paintings he produced for natural history museums. 

To help him create the illusion of reality he thought about light and atmosphere in scientific terms.

The art and illustration blog Gurney's Journey has an interesting post on his technique and theory.

 

Ralph Wilson - Australian

Heading East, 60 x 183 cm


Evening Looking East, 32 x 91 cm


Frenchmans Beach, Stradbroke Island,
90 x 61 cm

Format:

Because of it's pleasing proportions, the Golden Rectangle is a traditional format for paintings, and the ready-made canvases available in art shops are usually standard-looking rectangles. An unusual format, however, can often produce a more interesting composition, and can be worth the extra effort of a custom-made support. The horizontal nature of the sea lends itself to formats stretched horizontally. If the intention is to focus on the water as the subject of a particular work, the vertical dimension of sky may be superfluous. On the other hand, if one wants to convey the total marine environment, this can sometimes be achieved with a vertical format - a vertical slice through the panorama.