Architectural Landscape

Hugh Greer combines his love of buildings and the horizon to paint the definitive Kansas landscape.

There’s a reason Hugh Greer’s paintings often include redbud trees, the Tallgrass Prairie and the Flint Hills: it’s what he knows best. “I think it’s very important to paint something you’ve experienced, something that’s in your heart that you can see and smell and touch,” Greer says. “This is where I live. It’s what I know.”

This is what the rest of us should know: Hugh Greer has helped put Wichita and the rest of Kansas on the artistic map. His paintings of the state have perennially placed in the annual Arts for the Parks competition, a national contest that celebrates artwork from national parks, forests and historic sites. In 2003, he even won the grand prize—$50,000 in cash—for his depiction of Fort Larned, a military post built in western Kansas during the Indian Wars.

“I like to think that I bring a little bit of Kansas to the rest of the world,” Greer says.
His original view of Kansas, and of Wichita, was of its buildings. When the Missouri native graduated from Kansas University, he found his first job in Wichita, drawing architectural illustrations for a local industrial design firm. About eight years later, he struck out on his own, doing architectural renderings for a number of different firms—and making time for his own art, as well.

“About 95 percent of my time was devoted to architectural renderings, and maybe 5 percent to fine art that first year,” Greer says. “As time went along, it became more like 75 percent architecture, 25 percent fine art. It was a gradual thing. Now it’s turned around to where 99 percent of what I do is fine art, and only 1 percent is architectural rendering.”

His transition out of the architectural industry a decade ago coincided with the proliferation of computer graphics. Greer, who confesses he doesn’t even know how to turn on a computer, knew his talent would soon be replaced by software and graphic illustrations. “It worked out perfectly,” he says. “It was time for me to start doing something else.”

Buildings, however, remain prominent in his work. At least three-quarters of his landscapes include some sort of structure. Sometimes it’s a stately brick house on the corner, sometimes a lonely farmhouse on the horizon. Sometimes buildings dominate the painting. Other times they’re just a small part of the scenery. Always, they’re presented with the kind of perspective that can only come from years of architectural experience.
Greer’s prize-winning Fort Larned painting, for example, offers a bird’s-eye view of the building. “It’s as if you’re looking at it from the air, like a bird,” he explains. “I didn’t get that from a photo, and I certainly couldn’t jump that high. But I can take pictures at ground level and transpose those as though I’m looking at the building from an elevated view. That’s one of the key things my years in architectural rendering taught me: I can always start with a fresh perspective.”

His perspective has been enhanced by time spent outdoors. Greer loves to fish, and always takes a camera along with his tackle box and fishing pole. “You see a lot when you’re out there fishing,” he says. And seeing, he says, is the key to being a successful artist. “If you’re to be a landscape painter, you’d better be getting outdoors. It’s very important to spend as much time outdoors as possible.”

The problem is, most of his work has to be done in the studio. And on top of the eight or more hours a day he typically spends painting, he also teaches workshops and classes across the country, writes art books (his third came out this past spring) and serves as contributing editor for The Artist magazine.

The only way he manages to get it all done, he admits, is with the help of his wife, Terry.
In exchange, Greer pampers her every evening with a half-hour back rub while they watch the news. “She does absolutely everything that needs to be done,” Greer says. “All I have to do is paint.”