Hiking in landscapes, climbing up and seeing the open spaces and photographing them etc is of course what like I do, but, to have the eye, patience, creativity and out and out talent to create glorious paintings from the views of the countryside is something I truly admire.
If you are an art lover or maybe love a British view then there is one fellow you must see and follow, Charles Evans. His twitter stream is a joy to follow, not only has he got a fantastic sense of humour, he shares his art on the go, tweeting out paintings at each process whilst interacting.
Also a TV presenter, author and food critic I invited him here to show not just some of his pieces but also to find out more about behind the scenes.
From the desk of Charles Evans
After a fairly conventional education I went to Lincoln college of art where I had a wonderful time and spent 3 years getting drunk! It must have have taught me something , as I then spent 20 years in catering! I always painted and sold during this period, but catering was my bread and butter (see what I did there).
It wasn’t until about 20 years ago that I turned to art full time as an occupation. Shortly after that mad and exciting decision I was commissioned to do a series of 6 short painting articles for Tyne Tees TV, we made 120 in total such was the success of them.
After this a production company called Orion TV took them up and we made more for Discovery Real Time TV. These are called A Brush With Britain and we travelled throughout the UK making programmes.
As well as all the TV stuff I’ve written books for David&Charles publishers and Search Press publishers.
I spend most of my time travelling doing workshops and demos for art societies as well as tutoring painting holidays throughout Europe.
This year I’ve been to France 4 times, Spain and Amsterdam as well as Ireland. I buzz on my job, so much so that at the ripe old age of 60 my mother is still asking me what I want to do when I grow up!! No idea!
I’m also the face of Winsor and Newton possibly the oldest, but certainly the biggest manufacturer of art materials in the world. If Carlsberg made paints, I’d use them!
Sometimes for some of my shows there are huge audiences one in particular was a regular for Rotary and there would be 3000 people in the audience with a big screen behind me and when the house lights went down and the spot light came on I couldn’t see a single colour I was mixing, but it always came out ok.
These shows are just good fun, tell em some jokes and some stories, wonder around the stage a bit and do some paintings as well. I spend my life on the road and in hotels, life is funnier than jokes. My more serious side is painting in my studio at home and for these I paint mainly in watercolours and acrylics, what I call proper paintings, gallery pieces.
For my hobbies I work out, I’m a black belt in karate, I shoot, ride horses and drink!
All in all, a busy boy who’s still looking for more to do.
I have a very active website, and I’m on twitter @charlesevansart