About Laura Darling

I’m an artist and writer from Brighton. As a landscape painter, I aim to capture atmosphere, space and silence. I walk daily, feeling alive to the way human history is woven into the landscape in the paths we’ve made and the walls we’ve built. How geology has formed the structure of the land, how the weather shapes our experience of being outside. I want those who view my work to feel like they could step into the landscape and be part of it. I want them to take a deep breath, hear the birds, enjoy the space and solitude.

I’m very interested in how our access to land is controlled, either by natural barriers or by human intervention and ownership. How we circumnavigate those barriers to reach the land beyond.

 I like to use quite dry oil paint and/or drippy layers to capture the chalky, pared back landscapes and like the unfussy nature of using paint in this way. I keep some of the pencil markings that have helped me plan out the painting, especially when painting still life – keeping elements of drawing and a little roughness that keeps me from getting tied up with detail. I look for lines of light, slivers of colour that catch the eye and pull the viewer in to the landscape.

I’m also interested in the domestic landscapes that still life creates, concentrating on colour and form and the beauty of small things.