Walter Holmes

Walter Holmes’ beautiful landscape paintings convey a wonderful sense of the tranquillity and gentle movement of the natural world and often evoke memories of lazy, sun-filled days. Many of his paintings are based on scenes around his Northeast homeland, but are the response to memories and feelings of a place rather than being accurate representations and are often Impressionist in style.

Walter himself describes his work as having “no feeling of competition with the camera or rejection of abstract ideas. Consequently, representation is sometimes stretched in order to enliven and embolden the subject”

Of particular interest to Walter is the way light, especially sunlight, falls upon the landscape and its features, and how it affects the images we see, often creating a warmth and giving life to subjects. His paintings convey a strong sense of the seasons, from the crisper feelings of a spring meadow to the hazier, glowing images of high summer.

Walter primarily uses oils and acrylics, which add depth to the paintings, and employs a rich palette of colour including golds, greens, blues and reds.

Since studying Fine Art in the 1960s, Walter’s painting career began seriously in the 1980s and he has had work shown in many exhibitions and galleries around the country since then, both in solo and mixed shows.

Walter’s work has been selected for the Laing Calendar Competition three times (won 2nd prize). He has exhibited regularly at the Mall Galleries in London with; The Royal Institute of Oil Painters, The Royal Society of Marine Artists, The Pastel Society, The New England Art Club and was chosen for the Discerning Eye competition. He has also had work shown in New York. Several major institutions have commissioned paintings by Walter,  including The Royal Navy,  Pricewaterhouse Coopers,  the Bank of England,  GKN Westland Helicopters and the Swan Hunter Shipbuilders.