I’ve been avidly watching on my Fox Arts channel the UK Sky Arts ‘Landscape Artist of the Year 2019’ series and have been enthralled to find a number of outstanding artists that really impressed me with their unique styles and excellent landscape paintings. Paula Mitchell was one of those artists. She also had in my view one of the most fantastic submission oil painting entitled, ‘Ryde Beach’. I got in touch with Paula on Zoom and managed to view many of her wonderful oil landscape paintings in her home studio while exploring her ‘behind the scenes’ insights into how to use her oils, her drive for painting landscapes as well as what it was really like painting in the Sky Arts’ program.
This two part interview with Paula, presents a number of her recent paintings and her personal journey along with some excellent tips for painting in oils. Paula captures the light and tones in her landscapes so well, be they on her doorstep, garden greenhouse or out in the countryside where she lives in Hampshire England. One thing that really resonated for me was hearing Paula describe her being in the moment as she goes through her life. Paula lives this philosophy with a passion and a focus when looking for her next painting subject, thinking “I want to have a go at that”. I think this is a profound reminder for any artist, particularly in this time of Covid 19 and the lockdown, to always be thinking in the moment particularly when painting as our next subject could be right under our feet each morning.
I really enjoyed chatting and having a laugh with Paula while she generously shared how she works, structuring the composition of her oil paintings, including a number of her recent lockdown works both powerfully simply and beautifully painted. I hope you enjoy this two part interview AWS series which not only gives you an insight into Paula’s work but her indepth experience as a contestant in the Sky Art’s Landscape Artist of the Year 2019. To all those aspiring and experienced oil painters, watch this space as I and Paula will also shortly share an ‘immersive en plein air ‘ paint-along experience‘ in our next upcoming AWS behind the scenes video together. I wish you many happy mindfulness painting hours during this ongoing lockdown period. I’m also looking for more subscribers on my You Tube Channel, so if you can share this video with a fellow artist and or enthusiast or on your social media that would be much appreciated.