Landscape Painting Ideas & Creative Insights

The first month of a new year can often feel challenging as we settle back into our routines and deal with the cold winter months. Having decided as one of my 2026 art goals to do more work in the sketchbook, I found this habit to be very grounding. I had something to look forward to at the end of the day, and could make that sketchbook page a simple or as challenging as I was in the mood for. What I Explored This first month was very experimental. I decided that I didn’t wan

I’m not one for setting goals, or resolutions, or jumping on any trends just because it’s January. But this year, starting a new year with a lot of uncertainty around careers, homes and more, feels like a good time to ground myself in projects and passions. It’s what I always do when I can’t control things around me, I keep myself busy. So I thought I’d share with you my six art projects that I’m hoping to work on this year. These are by no means fixed, and I’m only holding a

Artists always foster relationships with landscapes that they love. Van Gogh in Arles, Monet in Giverny, John Constable in Suffolk. Now it feels as though Edinburgh is becoming that place for me. A place I keep returning to, that lingers on in my notebooks and sketchbooks.  But just as Monet painted his gardens or his haystacks in different conditions, so Edinburgh means something different to me every time I go. The first time I arrived in this majestic, gothic city I was gr

The landscape has always been my source of refuge. It’s a place of comfort, clarity, far better at cleaning my mind than any therapy or self care ever could. I find a deep connection to places that I return to, year after year, like a migratory albatross returning to her mate. But the landscape has its extremes too, and nowhere has this been more apparent to me than in the valleys of Wales. The rugged Welsh landscape is bound by cycles of weather, microclimates, birth and des

Autumn is a season of transformation, where nature turns sumptuous shades of Indian red, burnt orange, and shimmers of gold. For landscape artists , this is an inspiring time to capture the essence of autumn through landscape art. Whether you’re a beginner or an experienced painter, the beauty of autumn invites exploration. In this blog post, I explore various ideas and techniques for creating stunning autumn-themed art. From selecting the right location to mastering your co

Adding landscape artwork to your home can transform your space, bringing you the peace of the outdoors and a connection with nature. But how do you choose the perfect piece? With so many styles, colors, and subjects available, this guide will help simplify your decision-making process. Whether you're looking to brighten a living room or create a calming atmosphere in your child's bedroom, you'll find useful tips here. Landscape art ideas When looking for the perfect landscap

Clocks, sugars, cotton, wool. The silken parachutes of dandelions are a fixture of English summer gardens and childhood.  The humble dandelion is regarded as a weed, though I dislike the term. A weed to me is not a nuisance, but a plant or flower that simply grows where it falls. It’s an opportunist, and dandelions are one of the very best, colonising driveways, fields, pavements and manicured gardens. With elegant draping leaves and long furry stalks, a dandelion is easy to

I’m excited to share the first pieces from my latest collection of landscape paintings , Closer to Home . This collection started out as...

Recently, I started reading a new book that had been on my wishlist for quite some time. Ben Rawlence’s The Treeline is a beautifully...

This year, I’ve changed my mind about a lot of things. It took just over 48 hours to change my opinion about London. First, a little back...

Paintings Completed: 18 (+ lots of sketches + several trips out into nature) September in my studio was all about my latest woodlands painting collection, Woodlands and Walks, and thankfully it was a highly productive and satisfying month. I may not have managed to paint every single day, but in the grand scheme of things, with work obligations, a toddler, home projects and general adulting, I did pretty well. You can follow the progress of this series here. For the sake of

Back when I used to paint in oils, what felt like decades ago (or pre-2020) I had far too many colours, and honestly very little idea of how to use them. I had Prussian Blue, Cerulean Blue, Naples Yellow, Cadmium Orange, Pthalo Green, Viridian Green and so on, but I didn’t understand the nature of how these colours worked with each other in terms of value, tone, contrast. What colours should you mix with what? And don’t get me started on straight-from-the-tube greens. They’re

I’ve always painted nature. From flat watercolour animals on printer paper to my first experiment on canvas with horses (I haven’t saved these first terrible attempts). Animals were comforting, David Attenborough made them come to life on screen. I felt that by painting them, somehow I could experience their wonder for myself. Landscape painting had always been secondary. Always left until the last, often painted quite hurriedly and with little careful execution. A landscape

One scene. Several scenes at once. Tracking the shifting light. Different times of day, different weather. Looking back through the progress of my painting Alfie in Patagonia, what I initially saw as ugly not–quite-right stages were actually beautiful scenes in and of themselves. Just as Claude Monet in the winter and early springs of 1892 and 1893 painted the Gothic facade of the Rouen Cathedral from multiple vantage points, atmospheres and conditions to grasp at the spiritu

Hi there, it’s still sweltering over here in sunny Malta, so getting stuck in to painting frosty scenes and tiny icebergs feels a big ironic. I’ll talk about life in Santiago in my next post, but first I had to share with you the first of my Patagonia landscape paintings . I’m planning a little series of oils, capturing the different nuances of light and colour that this wonderful place is so famous for. As an artist used to painting in pretty bold and varied colours, this

It almost happened without me noticing. All of a sudden I felt a searing hot pain in my fingers. No longer absorbed in what I was doing, I noticed how numb my hands were. That’s what happens when you remove your gloves for plein air painting at -2 degrees Celsius in the Patagonian landscape. It’s cold, and it hurts. It was intense, but it was definitely the most amazing painting and travel experience of my life so far. A honeymoon, an adventure story and a journey of discov