Artworks by Chris Marshall

For as long as I can remember, I have felt a strong connection to the many and varied landscapes of the UK. I am a keen walker and cyclist, and love being outside when the light is interesting - early and late in the day, in bright moments between storms, when cloudscapes are shifting, when mist or showers add atmosphere, or when something in the landscape is picked out by a shaft of sunlight. I have also had a lifelong interest in visual arts, and about 15 years ago, I finally picked up a paintbrush and started experimenting. I started out with oil paints and have settled, very happily, working in this medium. Until about three years ago, I found very little time for painting, but in 2024, I decided to create a large landscape of a corner of the UK Lake District with which I have had a lifelong love affair. That painting, which is 1.5m x 0.9m, took me a year to complete, and gave me the confidence to begin painting a bit more seriously. I work entirely on landscape painting in oils, focusing mainly on my favourite places in the UK, including Sussex, where I live. Although I work indoors from my own photographs, I have always spent time in the landscape in question as well so that I have a feel for the place - painting an unfamiliar scene from someone else's photograph feels sterile to me. As my practice has developed, I have found that my interest in how light plays on the landscape is a dominant feature of many of my paintings. I work quite slowly, building the painting up in layers over several working sessions, allowing the paint to dry in between. Although there is some blocking in at the start, my approach is often quite iterative - first painting an approximation of the finished work, then coming back to make adjustments until I am satisfied.