Artworks - Neil Douglas

Through my work I aim to combine influences from traditional painters and illustrators with a modern use of photography as a research tool. I hope to be able paint pictures that capture times and places that have and continue to be a source of inspiration. The American landscape has been a constant influence on my work with recent paintings concentrating on the country’s west coast. Growing up on the ‘Americana’ of Coca Cola commercials and John Hughes movies, my work contrasts between the wish for such innocence and my suspicions that in reality, such innocence only exists on screen. The realistic finish to the painting aims to reflect society’s unquestionable faith in the authenticity of the photographic image. Being of a generation that has grown up surrounded by photography, from newspapers to billboards, my work reflects how, as a result, I view thought and dreams as photographic forms. Working on large canvases, the surface encourages the viewer to contemplate the image as a whole whilst also being able to move closer and view the variety of colours and mark making that combine to build the final image. The works of artists such as Edward Hopper and Norman Rockwell have proved a constant source of inspiration for there ability to capture mood alongside more modern painters such as the American Richard Estes whose New York landscapes perfectly illustrate an example of photography’s relationship to painting.