ABOUT

Woodland, wild places, sea, sky and wildflower meadows provide an endless source of inspiration for my paintings and drawings.  I venture out to experience the landscape in all weathers and through the shifting seasons, taking my studies back to the studio to inspire oil paintings, watercolours and pen & ink work.

 

Working full-time as an artist allows me to explore new ideas and how I can develop and realise them in a variety of forms.  Nature in all its fragile and fierce beauty and how our experience of the natural world resonates with us provides a deep wellspring of ideas and i'm always looking to move my work forwards in new ways.

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I've lived in The Cotswolds my whole life and I never grow tired of the view over beautiful landscapes, the plants, flowers and trees and the wonderful, entertaining range of wildlife that's either visiting my garden or running and flying around the woods and fields.  If, like me, you love the natural world and how much it benefits our emotional and physical wellbeing then you will appreciate the need to preserve, conserve and cherish it for it's own benefit as much as ours.

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I studied Silversmithing and Jewellery design at college in the 1980's and worked as a goldsmith for many years, teaching the subject for 15 years.  But I always came back to my first love which was drawing and painting.  Personal circumstances took me away from art from 2007 to 2018 and in 2018 I undertook an MA in Illustration, completing this in 2021.  This kickstarted my art career again and is where I began the Cotswold wildlife illustrations for cards and prints.

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My current art practice focuses primarily on oil painting and I developed a process I call 'Chromatic Texturism' to encompass the rich colour and 'impasto' texture I use in all my oil paintings.  This allows me to create work which partly obscures and partly discloses the subject whether it's the wide vista of a landscape or small copse nestling in a field.

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My aim is to let the viewer into my work to immerse themselves in what possibilities lie within the painted space.  Many of those who now own my work feel attracted not only to the colour and subject matter but to a certain intangible 'magic' that emanates from the canvases.  I never try to tell the whole story in my paintings, in order to give free reign to the imagination of the viewer and let them decide what they see in the work.​​​

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Colin Clark