Having grown up in the United Kingdom, atmosphere and weather have always been topics of conversation for oil painter Andy Eccleshall. With gray, rainy days and dramatic clouds ever on the horizon, the landscape artist is perpetually immersed in captivating subject matter.
Fresh Fall, oil on canvas, 36 x 24"
“I have been engaged with art seemingly my whole life in one form or another. Running throughout has been my fascination with, and joy, of painting landscape and atmosphere,” he says. Now living in the Pacific Northwest of the United States, Eccleshall continues to find himself surrounded by constant inspiration. “Wonderfully misty days, brilliant summers and clouds almost close enough to touch,” he says. “I have been a working artist for almost 40 years and have loved every moment and every aspect.”
Gloaming, oil on canvas, 40 x 30"
Eccleshall likes to work large, finding that it helps the viewer “feel” the painting and more deeply connect to the environment of the scene. “If I hear someone say, ‘I know exactly how that day feels’ or ‘I can feel the chill/sun/wind’ then I know I’ve succeeded,” says the artist.
Vast is a 60-by-60-inch oil of arid eastern Washington in mid summer. “Vast is all about the sky. By pushing the horizon line down in the composition it draws the eye up and through the clouds. On this particular day there were thunderstorms forecast, and the clouds took on a wonderfully spikey quality. I wanted to paint this scene large so that the viewer could put themselves in the painting. I just loved the circulation and ‘angel wing’ pattern of the clouds,” says Eccleshall.
Vast, oil on canvas, 60 x 60"
He paints plein air and in the studio, using plein air studies for color reference and taking photographs to capture details. “But when I paint,” he adds, “I’m much more interested in the atmosphere and the air than I am about accurately rendering detail.”
His expansive Fir Island Reflectionsmeasures 36 by 84 inches. “This painting captures a very typical winter late afternoon…in Washington's Skagit Valley, just a few minutes before sunset. During the winter, some areas of farmland become waterlogged, creating these fascinating mirror ponds,” says the artist. “The pools are broken by the remnants of the crop rows as they disappear and reappear from beneath the water. The scale of the painting (7 feet long) helps to place the viewer in the scene to get a true feeling of light and distance.”
Fir Island Reflections, oil on canvas, 36 x 84"
Eccleshall is represented by Cole Gallery in Edmonds, Washington; Smith and Vallee Gallery in Bow, Washington; Matzke Fine Art and Design in Camano, Washington; Centerpiece Gallery in Raleigh, North Carolina; and Mary Williams Fine Arts in Boulder, Colorado. —
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