Douglas Wilson
With the exception of a brief foray into abstraction in the
1960s, the portfolio of Douglas Wilson is comprised of
figurative and surrealist interpretations of the landscape.
Ask when the artist first discovered the locations that
inspired his works and he claims his is “more of a visionary
process”, adding: “My compositions are inspired by the
feeling of a place rather than what’s physically there in
front of me. We live with a lot of ugliness in England, but
among it there is still a wealth of beautiful countryside to
be explored.”
And inspiration is certainly not in short supply for the
Shropshire-based artist, “I mostly work from sketches and
we’re blessed to have a very varied landscape,” he says.
“The south is very hilly but, in the north, where I live, it
flattens out towards the Cheshire plain.”
Working with what he terms the “canal-and-buttercup
countryside”, much of Douglas’s oeuvre depicts
architectural subjects set against dramatic skies and
sweeping green landscapes. Whilst he paints almost
exclusively in his studio, he will often take quick plein air
sketches of landscapes that speak to him, occasionally
taking out his camera to snap finer details that catch his
eye, such as a Victorian chimney pot.
While his reference materials are gathered with haste,
the process of creating the paintings is a lengthy one,
sometimes taking as long as two years to craft a painting,
such as Lilies at Chartres. “They’re painted with thin glazes,
so I craft an impasto painting and then apply thin glazes
over the top,” he explains. “It’s a very slow process which
gradually develops layers of transparent colour, and so I’ll
usually have a few on the go at the same time.”
Despite such a lengthy and successful career, his
painting style has shifted of late. “I have been gradually
moving away from this [method] as I get older and my
eyesight isn’t so good,” says the 83-year-old painter. “I find
myself moving towards a freer style of painting which hails
back to my student days, being more expressive with my
strokes and being less regimented in my composition.”
Douglas’s next show runs from 7 November to 1 December at
Highgate Contemporary Art, London N6. http://www.highgateart.comFresh
Paint
Inspiring new artworks, straight off the easel
Artists & Illustrators 17