Unlock the Secret: 3 Ways That Landscape Art Can Boost Your Brain
I absolutely love to paint landscapes…big blue skies, dramatic clouds and far away fields. It is probably because since I live in Michigan and the view out my back window is 20 acres of sunny open fields and moody distant tree lines. No buildings or skyscrapes to block my view even though I was born a city girl from California.
Since moving to the midwest, I have become fascinated by the drama of a cloudscape, the magic of mist floating above far off grove of trees, the expanse of a field of crops sprouting in neat rows or wildflowers and clover waving too and fro in the breeze. And it turns out the best art to have in your home if you want to super charge your mental performance (and that of your kids, roommates and/or significant other) is to have a landscape view in your space to gaze at throughout your day.
Here’s why: It turns out that a relatively new field of research called neuroaesthetics is confirming decades-old research from neuroscience that finds that certain types of images are better than others in helping the brain heal, learn, and perform faster and better in decision making, remembering and calcultaing. The clear winner: landscapes!
“Neuroasthetics...is the scientific study of the neural consequences of contemplating a creative work of art, such as the involvement of the prefrontal cortex (in thinking) and limbic systems (for emotions). ”
Here’s how adding landscape art to your space can help your brain do more!
#1: Landscape Art Can Get You Into the Flow
The feeling of flow is like being in the zone and it something that athletes and artists sometimes experience when they jump into a higher level of performance and all stress and thinking falls away. You are alert and performing at top level without all the worries and anxiety. All of us can get into the feelling of flow everyday if we work at creating the right conditions for it. One of the best ways to do that is to surround yourself with imagery that allows your brain to disengage from the everday stress and distractions. Landscape art can do that better than other types of art. Studies have shown that viewing art releases dopamine and endorphins that help us feel alert but at ease and nature scenes especially landscape views can be exceptionaly good at doing that. It takes approximately 10 to 15 minutes of focused attention to reach a flow state and once in flow, it may last from 30 minutes to a couple of hours. It is even possible to achieve flow more than once a day, given the right conditions.
#2: Looking at Natural vs. Manmade Scenes Calms the Brain
According to the new book Your Brain on Art by Susan Magsamen and Ivy Ross, researchers have found that exposure to art has profound benefits on mental well-being and cognitive performance. More specifically, visual art that includes natural imagery (for example a lake, a field or a mountainside) are more calming than art that features man-made features (such as a building or urban scape). It is believed that because humans have been exposed to natural settings for millenia in comparison to several hundred years of manmade structures, the brain is better suited to process natural scenes something researchers call processing fluency. Processing fluency allows the brain to fall into a relaxed state more easily because of this long evolutionary history. So covering your walls with landscape scenes will be a perfect way to help your brain relax and feel at ease.
#3: The Magic of Horizon Lines
Out ancestors gazed at horizonz for millenia. And that trained our brains to be very good at studying a horizon line for the sunrise or sunset, approaching tribes, and prey animals for the hunt. As a result, the horizon line is a perfect cue for our brains to process a wider field of view and this expanding of our visual field allows the body to switch off the stress response. In fact, studies have shown that viewing horizon lines can induce a state of calm and reduced stress by allowing our eyes to relax and take in a wider panorama or view.
So if you are looking to create spaces in your home that foster relaxation, creativity, calm, flow state, then you might want to include a landscape or two on your walls.