The act of seeing is no small thing. To see something is to be possessed by it. Sometimes it carries off a part of you, sometimes it’s your whole soul.
Landscapes of the Heart, Motojiro Kajii
So January is dragging its heels, in the northern hemisphere anyway. It’s been so cold and wet and (seemingly eternally) so so grey. The dog still needs walking but the daylight is so squeezed that it’s a military mission to fit it all in. The mud fight is real!
sunset.placed.logs 2025 Canvas on Panel, 31x25cm
But once out, it's totally worth the effort and the walk I do regularly along a disused railway track feels a million miles away from the chaotic city I live in. I get most of my inspiration for my paintings when I'm out walking. Maybe it’s the slowness of the pace and its rhythm makes me notice the small details. I take 100s of pictures of random moments and eventually a few of them become paintings, like this rather Romantic skip in the sky, my first painting of 2025. These pictures are serendipitous moments of banality, three fridges dumped alongside a bin bag on a street corner for example. Somehow these subjects feel worthy of spending a few hours painting.
patrol.unless.slap 2024 Oil on Canvas Panel, 30x40
My new Scuzzy Landscape series has grown to over 30 paintings now. The paintings abstract three word names refer to their what3words location where the viewer is standing. Every three metre square of the entire planet (including the oceans) has been given its own unique three word combination. And this is where I’d love you to help….
CALL OUT FOR YOUR IMAGES
Can you name something beautiful or interesting you’ve seen lately?
I’d like to widen my search for images. So if you’d like to help contribute to my Scuzzy Landscape series, you can email me a picture or two, or as many as you like. The rules - there aren’t so many really - it should be a landscape in its widest definition where there’s some kind of man-made intervention in the natural landscape, or nature has infiltrated the urban or manmade in a surprising way. If possible, send me the exact what3words location where the photo is taken at the same time via their app. If this is not possible, send a location from your smartphone map. I can’t promise I’ll paint it (unless it’s a commission 😁) but if I do, you will get an source image credit when it’s exhibited.
If you’d like to see more Scuzzy Landscapes for inspiration go here.
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