Artist Statement

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I am a landscape painter living on the edge of Dartmoor and working from my studio in the village of Holne. I exhibit regularly in galleries in South West England and also in solo, shared and group exhibitions throughout the region.

 

The Dartmoor landscape is my passion.  Being close to this wild and spiritual place gives me endless inspiration and has enabled me to merge my love of art and the natural world.  I seek out unusual subjects and am attracted to the wilder areas of the moor and to the fleeting moods and light changes that the unpredictable weather brings.   I am particularly drawn to the ancient sites such as the stone rows and circles that reflect the moor’s history but also to the more gentle parts of the landscape with its intricate patterns of hedged or stonewalled fields, juxtaposed with bleak moorland, tumbling rivers and rocky tors.  

The beautiful coastline of the South West Peninsula is also an inspiration to me and presents a contrast to the sometimes, starkness of the moor. I also enjoy painting the more intimate aspects of the landscape, namely the seasonal profusion of wild flowers, hedgerows and trees.

 

Further afield, my travels at home and abroad inspire me to capture my experiences in paint.

 

I use a range of media, the choice being dictated by the subject matter and the effect I want to create.  Some paintings with acrylic media may incorporate the use of texture paste and found materials such as moorland grasses and sand, while others will include the addition of oil pastels, pens and pencils. In another approach I use oils to develop an image by superimposing translucent glazes of paint to produce a semi abstract painting.  Colour is important to me and I enjoy experimenting with expressing the essence of the landscape in this way.

More recently I have painted directly in the landscape using acrylic paint on paper to achieve a more abstracted style of painting.