When did you start your creative practice and why?
I started painting seriously in 1983 when I went to Psalter Lane Art College to study Fine Art.
How would you describe your artistic style to someone unfamiliar with your work?
There are two key parts to my plein air painting process, and both are equally relevant. The first part is conscious decision-making about colours to use and shapes to describe the landscape. The second part is subconscious decision-making, painting with speed to create surprising colour combinations and unexpected brush marks to instinctively respond to the landscape. Both are equally important and work cohesively.
What themes or ideas do you find yourself returning to most often?
I return to landscapes with dramatic, structural foregrounds and swooping valleys with vast distances. I am inspired by the vast, open distances constantly altering in the quickly changing light.
What is your creative process from idea to finished piece is it always the same?
I start with an open mind and little preconception about what I'm going to do. I have experience but each painting is a fresh start guided by the shape of the view and the colours that are gradually revealed as I look at it. I use broad gestural marks and stop when the picture has an exciting arrangement of shapes and colours that suggest something about the experience of being there.
Is there a particular piece of yours that feels especially meaningful? Why?
All my paintings of Stanage Edge are important to me as I've painted the place numerous times from many locations, in every season. It always surprises and inspires me.
What do you find challenging as an artist, and how do you overcome these challenges?
I find getting exposure as an artist challenging as I am rejected from all London based exhibitions. I only have exhibiting opportunities with the PDA and some local galleries. I use facebook, Instagram and TikTok to share my drawings and paintings.
Do you ever have creative blocks, how do you keep motivated?
Painting outside in the Peak District is always inspiring and I value every opportunity to paint that I have. I've never had a creative block.
How does your immediate environment or location play in your work?
Fundamentally essential. I can't image not painting en plein air in the Peak District. It is very natural.
Who are the artists (past or present) who have strongly influenced you?
David Bomberg, Frank Auerbach, Chaim Soutine, David Hockney, Joan Eardley.
How has your style or perspective evolved over time?
Become more freer, liberated and expressive with colour and mark making.
What tools, materials, or techniques are essential to your practice? Is there a colour you just couldn't do without?
Large filbert brush that is quite well used, a large poor quality scratchy house painting brush. Lemon, cadmium yellow, cadmium yellow deep, rose madder, magenta, scarlet lake, cobalt blue
How do you balance artistic expression with practical concerns like income or marketing, social media?
I have to work as a secondary school art teacher for four days for a regular income. I paint during my one day off school. I manage social media in the evening.
If you could give the younger you advice, what would it be?
Have faith in yourself to make a living. There will always be a way or several ways.
If your work could evoke one feeling or reaction in viewers, what would it be?
Awe.
What is your website and how do we find you on social media?
@artcraiglongmuir
