About Me
I am a landscape artist living in rural Hampshire. My work is driven by the incredible feeling of energy and freedom that I experience when I am out in the landscape. Connection with nature is vital to my wellbeing. I am never happier than when I am in a wild place, soaking up the feeling of plugging into nature's abundant energy and lifeforce.
I most like to be in wild, wide-open spaces, under a big sky. Skies are where I love to lose myself - they are beautiful spaces we can escape to, where your imagination can roam, and where your soul can fly free. They are always changing, never-repeating and they endlessly fill me with wonder and joy. Nature can sooth, uplift, calm and energise us, helping us to find and maintain spiritual equilibrium.
Why Do I Paint Landscapes And Skyscapes?
Connection with nature can feed and restore your soul. Nature can be a great healer and the landscape is a place where we can feel free and alive. When the human world can feel uncontrollable, in a state of chaos and flux, we can take comfort in the quiet rhythms, constancy and continuity of the landscapes around us. Within the landscape we can pause, feel, observe and just be – held in the moment by the embrace of the natural world. My paintings are a celebration of these moments of connection with nature’s power, revelling in the energy, beauty and timelessness of the landscapes and big skies that surround my home.
I am currently very involved in campaigning to save a local area from a huge development plan. Nature is under threat in many ways - from development and due to climate change. Through my work, I hope to show what is at stake here. I aim to highlight nature’s wild beauty and express what this means to me. I hope my work may inspire others to connect with nature too - to see it's beauty and to feel it's power. Ultimately, I hope my work can help us to notice, value and cherish our wild places, so that we can protect and preserve them for future generations.
How Do I Work?
I begin by going out drawing within the landscape, using charcoals and/or pastels. I work quickly, focusing on key shapes, tones and colours, trying to capture the energy and feeling of the moment. I draw for the joy of it and to stay attuned to the landscape as it changes from season to season, from day to day, from moment to moment.
Back in the studio I typically paint in oils from my sketches, memory, and from photographs that I have taken whilst out working and walking in the fields. I paint expressively, with bold brushstrokes and dynamic marks to capture how it felt to be within the landscape experiencing the nurturing flow of nature's energy. I work with a limited, but very flexible earth-based colour palette and I like to work “alla prima”, adopting a wet-on-wet approach with the oils. I have also been experimenting with watercolours too. I like the way that the mediums are so very different and require completely different approaches. I anchor my work in what I have seen and observed, but my focus is to work instinctively and intuitively, conveying a sense of how it felt to be in that moment of connection with nature.
You are very welcome to visit my studio by appointment - please contact me if you would like to do this.
Paintings are also available on this website:
