Paintings and prints by Somerset landscape artist David A. Parfitt. The series reflects on our connections with nature, place and home.

A mixture of dramatic, sometimes almost abstract, watercolours and striking monochromatic monoprints, created in David’s studio during the lockdowns of 2020 and 2021.

The body of work focuses on the trees, wetlands and woods of Somerset. Exploring the tension between the restrictions that have been placed on all of us over the past year and the desire to get out into the natural world.

“On the face of it not much changed to my solitary working life, but then again everything was different.”

By staying close to home, David rediscovered places on his daily walks around the village, making new connections and creating new memories. Conversely, he also longed for his regular autumn and winter walks around the Mendip hills and Somerset wetlands.

David describes himself as a landscape artist working with watercolours and monoprints. His paintings are representational, but his intention is ‘to make things that have a sense of place without looking overly contrived or deliberate’. His method involves working quickly, drawing seemingly haphazard marks with a brush and combining these with loose washes without getting overinvolved in detail. At the same time, he is also ‘thinking about the painting and letting it speak to me, rather than purely replicating the landscape image in front of me’.

David’s positions and prizes

• elected member of the Royal Institute (RI) of Painters in Water Colours, 2011
• honorary treasurer for the Royal Institute (RI) of Painters in Water Colours
• winner of the Neil Meacher RI sketchbook award, 2012
• winner of the Frank Herring award, 2014
• winner of the Winsor & Newton/RI award (for the group of paintings judged to be the most outstanding contribution to the exhibition), 2016