British Landscape Paintings & Prints

I've been restricting my contact with others for some weeks already. Not because of exotic travel, but concerns about parents and infectiousness.

Artist's are naturally reclusive

Well, not all artists are given to self-isolation. Artists come in many shades and flavours.

There are more artist's groups, clubs and networks than you can shake a stick at. Most artists I know are a member of at least one. (I'm not)

There's a myth about artists. It's a picture of an artist locked away in their studio obsessed with their current artwork. It's an accurate image of me much of the time, I have to say.

The rest of the time, I'm out sketching in some remote corner of a landscape, by a rock or a tree.

I never have to figure out what to do with myself if I have to stay home. It's a no-brainer: I lock myself in my tower and make more art.

All that suggests the situation presents no problems for a semi-hermit artist. Um, no. You see I had an art project lined‑up for 2020…

The key word there was 'planned'.

I've tended to go with the flow when deciding what to paint. Developing some discipline felt like a good idea.

I'm on a quest to be the best artist I can be you see, and a more disciplined approach might make my art better.

So while storms Dennis, Ciara and Jorge raged, I made a plan to sketch a number of locations in the Wolds…

Who'd have imagined six months ago we'd be where we are right now?

A landscape artist needs the landscape

Sketching in the hills is not allowed at the moment with all non essential travel banned.

We're in a serious situation and people are suffering. Doing my bit by staying home is a relatively easy ask.

A landscape artist trying to paint hills without any hills to study has a bit of a problem of course. Nope, photographs are not good enough, even if they're great photographs.

It means my Wolds painting mission might have to be shelved. I'll have to come up with other things to paint. Or maybe not…

Having a 'project' to do had fired me up even more than usual. So I scampered out between the storms with my sketchbook whenever I could.

I've quite a collection of outside scribbles made while Kites, Buzzards and Kestrels hunted over the gorse dusted slopes.

They're ad‑hoc sketches, helping me get to know the nature of the Wolds. They're the very early stage of making landscape paintings.

I'm thinking of making a video of my sketches which I'll link to here.

A trivial problem, an artistic opportunity

So the problem I have is not knowing whether to shelve my project until 2021. I don't know if I have enough reference material or not, you see.

It's a trivial problem in the scheme of things. If I don't have enough preliminary work, then I'll have to paint something I'd not intended to. Hardly a hardship compared to what others are going through.

Hopefully, the current situation will pass. I wish for everyone's sakes it passes quickly. I hope you and yours stay safe. Please think of the vulnerable if you're not – one day you might walk in those shoes.

I'll let you know if I've decided to shelve my Wolds Landscape Series or not, in my next update.

From the single blade of grass and the magical, mysterious thing we call a cloud, to the epic and breathtaking vista, it all still fascinates this kid.

It's why I make British landscape paintings and art prints now.

Naturally, Yorkshire subjects dominate my collection at this time. I'm ever hopeful of being able to paint further afield, though. I've already got many sketches of 'foreign' parts elsewhere in the UK waiting for paint or lino.