Capturing the essence of a rural English landscape through colour, light and mark-making.

Melancholy Sun - 76 × 50 cms - Acrylic on stretched canvas

This new painting forms part of a series of works recently completed for a solo exhibition at the Last Supper Gallery in Battersea, London. The exhibition has been extended so there’s still time to see and a few are still available.

The series explores the changing light on the landscape at different times of day and across the seasons showing how light can vary so dramatically. It was a challenge capturing its fleeting beauty.

This painting shows a gorgeous hint of pink in the sky, a warm golden glow along the horizon, and the ever-changing light appears to be gently rising upwards, lending the scene a serene, luminous quality. It’s probably why it’s turned out to be one of my favourites.

Melancholy Sun (76 x 50 cms) is in my more impressionist style with bold, expressive brushwork and a restrained, atmospheric palette. Foreground forms are suggested rather than detailed. Broad strokes of muted ochre and warm umber imply a gently undulating field, their texture created by visible, directional paint marks that guide the eye inward. It’s also got a lot of my usual blending and layers with some layers shining through creating quite a translucent feel especially to the sky.

Mid-ground tones shift to cooler soft greens and slate blues which could indicate a band of distant meadow or low shrub, with edges that blur into the underpainting to convey depth. I always like my paintings to have a certain amount of interpretation so each person that looks at them can see something different.

A low horizon divides the composition allowing an expansive sky to dominate with all those gorgeous tones and layers. The sky is layered with translucent washes of blue tones punctuated by thicker tones that catch the light. I always try and have some kind of light on the horizon or light ascending or descending up into the sky.

These variations of colour and tone evoke a late afternoon atmosphere with a quiet, reflective mood rather than dramatic weather. You could look at it and see an early morning with the yellow and cream tones which is exactly what I love about interpretation. Light is suggested by subtle warm highlights along the horizon and occasional flecks of cream, implying the sun is low and diffused.

Compositionally the painting balances broad horizontal bands with few vertical accents except perhaps the suggestion of lone trees. I always have a degree of abstraction especially in the detail, inviting the viewer to complete the scene emotionally rather than literally. Surface texture and translucent layers are key and they create a tactile sense of place and time emphasising the materiality of paint as much as the landscape itself.

Overall my work communicates a calm introspective atmosphere as well as capturing the essence of a rural English landscape through colour, light and mark-making plus a lot of mood and atmosphere.