5 Things We Learned... Luke Elwes
Luke Elwes is a British contemporary artist and writer whose paintings capture his encounters with the landscape and with the elements. He gained prominence in the early nineties when he returned from his travels in India, Asia and North Africa with a series of key paintings.
Luke’s unique way of manipulating paint and texture creates otherworldly landscapes, half-dream, half-real, which transport you to a state of calm and tranquility.
Here are 5 Things We Learned about Luke.
What made you...you?
Coming from a family of artists. I spent hours watching my grandfather paint in his studio as a child and can’t remember a time when I wasn’t drawing or making things. And later on I realised it was possible to explore the world by making pictures of it.
When are you happiest?
When I’m in the zone, totally absorbed in my work. When I’m travelling, encountering new places with fresh eyes. And when I’m walking, watching the world turn beneath my feet.
Would you rather have a muse or be a muse?
I know very few artists who aspire to be a muse, just as I know very few who are not shaped and guided by a muse, by which I mean those giants on whose shoulders we stand.
Who do you admire?
My teachers, past and present. Restless souls who prefer to travel rather than stay at home. Someone who sees the timeless in the ordinary - as Vermeer did in his View of Delft – and above all those painters who never let up and who continue to inspire: Matisse, Miro, Pollock and Twombly, among many others.
What is important?
Finding a balance between going out and coming home. Realising that art takes time, requiring resilience and patience as well as a willingness to fail. But perhaps the most important thing is simply to keep working!
Portrait and all images provided by courtesy of Luke Elwes
