Verity James

Moorland, chalk path and hilltops lure me. ‘Footpath’, ‘OS map’ and ‘flask’ galvanises me. I walk for pleasure. Painting satisfies my appetite to capture and communicate my experience of being in the landscape.

Elements that continue to enthrall me are long shadows describing a hillside, a last burst of sunlight, tree line silhouettes tracing a horizon and the networks of hedges crisscrossing fields.

Walks and train journeys inform the differing perspectives and ratios of sky to land. I sketch and take photos on the go to prepare for painting in my studio.

In the process of re-examining my work to find out what it is about painting the rural landscape that appeals to me so enduringly. Escapism? Capturing a moment of quietude and beauty in a fragile world? Form and aesthetic? At the moment I'm not sure. Probably all of the above. Does it need to be more than that? I feel like it does so I am grasping at the many loose threads to weave a more complete practice.

Hastings
Dartmoor
Bath
Kelso
These place are home and inform my work.