Oil by Rosemary Bonney
Descending Dartmoor Mist
Rosemary is a landscape painter living on the edge of Dartmoor and working from her studio in the village of Holne. She exhibits regularly in galleries in South West England and also in solo, shared and group exhibitions throughout the region. She was runner up for the Devon Life landscape artist of the year in 2018.
The Dartmoor landscape is her passion. Being close to this wild and spiritual place gives her endless inspiration and has enabled here to merge her love of art and the natural world. She seeks out unusual subjects and is attracted to the wilder areas of the moor and to the fleeting moods and light changes that the unpredictable weather brings. She is particularly drawn to the ancient sites such as the stone rows and circles that reflect the moor's history but also to the more gentle parts of the landscape with its intricate patterns of hedged or stonewalled fields, juxtaposed with bleak moorland, tumbling rivers and rocky tors.
She also paints the more intimate aspects of the landscape, namely seasonal wild flowers resplendent in their profusion. Seascapes inspired by the beautiful coastline of the British Isles also feature in her work, as do impressions from further afield.
Oils, acrylics and mixed media are her preferred materials. The choice of medium is dictated by the subject matter and the effect she wants to create. Some paintings have been developed using acrylic paints and may involve texture paste and found materials such as moorland grasses and sand. Supplementary oil pastels, pens and pencils may be used additionally to achieve the desired effect. In other paintings she uses oils to develop an image by superimposing translucent glazes of paint to produce a luminous and semi abstract painting. Colour is important to her and she enjoys finding new ways of expressing the essence of the landscape with the use of colour.
Rosemary prefers a 'hands on' approach using palette knives, rollers, fingers, rags, sponges, sticks and any implement that achieves the purpose but also use brushes when appropriate.
The dramatic changes in the Dartmoor weather provide endless inspiration. The mist at Emsworthy Mire descended suddenly, creating an atmosphere which begged to be captured.
It was painted in oils on canvas using a palette knife and rags. This painting was also part of the selection that secured my place as a finalist in the Devon Life landscape artist of the year 2018.
Oil on Canvas
54x54cm including frame (piece 50x50cm)
Framed in an Open White Frame