Claire Wiltshire

Claire Wiltsher is a professional landscape painter working from her studio gallery in Lyndhurst, in the New Forest. Claire Wiltsher’s paintings capture the different weather and mood of land and sea. She states that “total recognition inhibits the imagination”. Claire Wiltsher has a master’s degree in fine art and has exhibited in solo shows throughout Britain, as well as having been a finalist in many competitions. She studied at Lancashire University as an arts student from 1986–89. In 1988, she was a finalist in the Reader’s Digest young illustrators competition and had already secured exhibitions before finishing her degree. The art critic Edward-Lucie Smith chose her work to be exhibited at Olympia at an International Fair. Most of the work was sold, allowing her to embark upon a new journey traveling to Indonesia. Claire Wiltshire’s original artworks are oil and mixed media canvases combining layers of paint with fragments of collage. She scratches through sections of the painting to allow colors from underneath to emerge. She says, “I want to create evocative paintings of land and sea that show a sense of place; different weather conditions are key elements”. Claire Wiltsher uses brushes and different size palette knives to build up layers and create depth. Paint is also flicked or carefully thrown on selected areas, evidence of this can be found all over her studio floor. The majority of Claire’s canvases are square which she feels is important in creating a balance and harmony in her paintings. The outdoors, walking and traveling are the main inspirations for Claire’s work. Poems often accompany Claire’s work and can help communicate specific ideas. Claire Wiltshire has also written a book called Journeys. Claire Wiltsher is the 2018 winner of the Artists and Illustrators magazine Artists of the year.

It could be argued that cave walls were the canvases for the world’s first landscape paintings, which depict and elevate natural scenery through art, but there is a richer history to consider.

The Netherlands was home to landscapes as a major theme in painting as early as the 1500s, and ink-on-silk paintings in China featured mountains and large bodies of water as far back as the third century. Greeks created vast wall paintings that depicted landscapes and grandiose garden scenes, while in the late 15th century and early 16th century, landscapes were increasingly the subject of watercolor works by the likes of Leonardo da Vinci and Fra Bartolomeo.

The popularity of religious paintings eventually declined altogether, and by the early 19th century, painters of classical landscapes took to painting out-of-doors (plein-air painting). Paintings of natural scenery were increasingly realistic but romanticized too. Into the 20th century, landscapes remained a major theme for many artists, and while the term “landscape painting” may call to mind images of lush, grassy fields and open seascapes, the genre is characterized by more variety, colors and diverse styles than you may think. Painters working in the photorealist style of landscape painting, for example, seek to create works so lifelike that you may confuse their paint for camera pixels. But if you’re shopping for art to outfit an important room, the work needs to be something with a bit of gravitas (and the right frame is important, too).

Adding a landscape painting to your home can introduce peace and serenity within the confines of your own space. (Some may think of it as an aspirational window of sorts rather than a canvas.) Abstract landscape paintings by the likes of Korean painter Seungyoon Choi or Georgia-based artist Katherine Sandoz, on the other hand, bring pops of color and movement into a room. These landscapes refuse to serve as a background. Elsewhere, Adam Straus’s technology-inspired paintings highlight how our extreme involvement with our devices has removed us from the glory of the world around us. Influenced by modern life and steeped in social commentary, Straus’s landscape paintings make us see our surroundings anew.

Whether you’re seeking works by the world’s most notable names or those authored by underground legends, find a vast collection of landscape paintings on 1stDibs.