The Importance of Places

As I have begun to focus more on landscape in my art I have become more aware of how important places are to me. I miss them in the same way that I miss people, which the current situation has made very clear. The atmosphere of a place can be as distinctive as the personality of a person, and even within a place as a whole the individual trees, hills, etc can feel very different. I think this is at least one of the reasons why I don't include figures in my landscapes, they distort the land's own personality simply by being visible. Perhaps it is also a kind of selfishness. These landscapes are mine, they came from my head and I don't want other people in them. I think mostly though that people distract from the purpose of my landscapes, as soon as you add a figure they become the focus and I feel like I might as well have painted a portrait. I want my landscapes to be like a portrait of a place, to capture the specific atmosphere of a location, whether real or imaginary.

Photo taken at the Weald and Downland Living Museum, one of my favourite places