I find it an exciting challenge to discover landscapes that for me will drive and sustain a body of work. It takes time spent looking, walking and exploring a place, often making many sketches and drawings first, before becoming familiar enough to start working in them.
In the places I have selected for this exhibition there is a powerful and evocative attraction that reflects my own interests, thoughts and desires. Many I return to time and again, knowing that such familiarity and memory can encourage more risks in my painting. I am also aware that underlying all of the places I paint in there is an unending drama that unfolds as the interplay of light is acted upon by cloud, weather and atmosphere. From the glorious rays that travel across the valleys, to the sparkles in a stream or the bright clear light that illuminates the city on a crisp winters day. It is lights ability to transform the landscapes that is the real subject and one that I find endlessly fascinating to paint.
David Atkins
