Lindsey Hambleton British landscape painter

BORN: 1978 Derbyshire. EDUCATION: Manchester Metropolitan University and University of Manchester

Paintings are so very often as much about paint itself as they are about subject or source; a reality not universally understood. It can speak as eloquently as word or melody when exploited with intelligence and dexterity. Hambleton has this understanding in her very DNA.
John Fineran

The themes of trees and water appeared in Lindsey’s work even in early childhood paintings. Recent paintings are inspired by well known places, sometimes recognisably depicted, sometimes abstracted, and always effusing a magical quality indicative of the artist’s enthusiasm for her subject. The personal response to the landscape focusses on essential elements and remembered forms, with strong structural elements often framed by trees, and balanced by light and open space. The viewer is often drawn into the composition through the perspective of track or river, perhaps imagining what lies beyond the painting. The heightened colour palette, vigorous brushwork and bold compositional shapes are an emotive response to landscape, creating works that are confident and full of energy.

Series of rapid oil pastel studies and collages are often used to explore colour and compositional elements and inform larger works, which are usually created in oil on wood panel. Smaller works can be landscapes simplified to a few descriptive brush marks, or detailed mixed media studies. The shift between mediums and focus helps work to evolve, and the freshness of new ideas engages the viewer with the artist’s passion for the landscapes she is inspired to paint.

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“I’m constantly excited by landscape – winding tracks through trees, the curve of a river, or the still reflection of a woodland pool. Strong contrast in light or colour, and bold forms such as dark damp tree trunks and cut out valleys are essential in my compositions. I’m particularly drawn to enclosed, ‘safe’ landscape spaces – woodlands and wild gardens – where the verticals and curves of tree trunks create ‘rooms’ with defined areas of colour, light and space.”