Documenting the Landscape
Arizona-based landscape painter Carson Bilger uses planar analysis to break a scene into three-dimensional forms that come together as a series of flat planes, allowing structure, light and shadow to emerge like a faded memory. The approach, he says, feels natural when drawing and logical when trying to create something flat out of sprawling and complex landscapes. Bilger notes, “Over the years, my process developed so that the paintings became increasingly more accurate representations of the visions in my mind.”
Bilger is fascinated by perception and memory—how people can experience the same place differently depending on time, vantage point and context. “It speaks to an idea that I have been contemplating,” he explains, “which is that things that are diametrically opposed can coexist.”
His background (a master’s degree in illustration) brings forth a strong graphic aesthetic in his work. Lines guide the eye, while color shapes the narrative of a scene. “The hierarchy of space is the first and foremost thing I consider when I look at a landscape,” the artist says. “Specifically, how the individual sections recede into the distance and define the horizon line. The next piece is the light and how the color relationships are balanced. I’m usually drawn to how the shadows contrast the colors of the landscape, and how the distance washes out the tones.”
With a process that starts with travel and photography-based documentation, Bilger says each painting is grounded in the reality of an actual experience and place. Choosing compelling compositions, sketching with ballpoint pen, and working out value structures in his sketchbook helps Bilger narrow his subjects before producing small-scale studies. He says, “I was using mostly watercolor for preparatory paintings, but as my work has gotten larger in scale I’ve been using acrylic. This gives me a better sense of the color.”
With a goal of capturing the viewer’s attention for long periods of time, Bilger’s lines create shapes like a story, with multiple visual entry points into his work. In addition, his works are intentionally “painterly,” through blending, textural brushstrokes and thicker layers of paint. “I’m trying to create a sort of contained abstraction within each individual shape,” he explains. “This way when the piece is viewed up close, the viewer can see the little, singular compositions that make up the whole.”
Bilger’s landscapes invite multiple ways of seeing. It’s proof that, as he says, a place can be “the same, but at the same time different.” —Doreen Manning
contact informationcarsonbilger.com
representationWestern Gallery
This story appeared in the October/November 2026 issue of Southwest Art magazine. Subscribe today to read every issue in its entirety.
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