This month Byard is holding a two-artist show of modern English landscape paintings by Derbyshire-based artist Lewis Noble and local artist Beckie Reed. Place is key for both of these artists; as is experimentation and a continually evolving consideration of the landscapes surrounding them.

Lewis Noble - River Series 2010

Lewis Noble has lived and worked in Derbyshire since 1996. His focus lies in painting the physical and emotional impact of the landscape on the senses and how it the experience of being in landscape affects us as human beings. The result is a body of work that speaks to the very heart of what it means to be part of the environment around us.

In recent years  Lewis Noble has focused exclusively on painting the landscape. This provides the opportunity to experiment with ‘pure painting’ whilst retaining an essential grounding in observation. Noble’s work draws on the diverse landscapes of the Peak District, Scotland, Wales and France and USA. Creating clear, defined bodies of work, he explores his chosen subject through changing emotions, movement, light & colour.

Lewis Noble has lived and worked in Derbyshire since 1996. In recent years he has focused exclusively on painting landscape because it provides the opportunity to experiment with “pure painting”. He was Derbyshire’s artist-in-residence during 2001 as part of the Vickers Art Prize, when he produced paintings at four prominent locations around the county. He has just completed a year-long project at Chatsworth House, capturing his response to the many varied aspects of this major country house estate in large scale studio paintings as well as in paintings completed in the landscape around Chatsworth.

Lewis’s River Series grew out of the Chatsworth project: he felt there was more to be done with the image of the reflection of light in the Sowter Stone Pool, which lies at the edge of Stand Wood behind the house, and which was one of the first places he painted during his year there. It is also where the idea for the main theme of the project first occurred to him, to follow the flow of water through the estate by a series of diverse yet connected paintings.

Lewis has returned to the idea of seeing the landscape reflected in bodies of water several time over the past 15 years or so as he is very taken with having to look into the landscape in order to see it. You are not simply looking at a view or a static moment, you have to peer though the water to see what is there, whether that is sky or trees or buildings or your own reflection even.  In many of these works he has used small leaves to print (in many layers sometimes) onto the painting surface. “This appeals to me as it means I am able to make a direct connection with the actual landscape,” he explains.

“These paintings are not snapshots of the landscape at any one particular moment but I like to think that they have time in them, that they are still in motion and with the layering of surface and physical depth they can stand in for the landscape as a whole.”

Beckie Reed

Beckie Reed has built up quite a following for her paintings of the vast skies and landscapes of East Anglia, where she lives and grew up. Wild, textured skies rising over tightly painted fields and coastal scenes still make an appearance but many of her newest paintings are of woodland, with shafts of light or the glow of a sunset filtering through finely delineated foliage.

She paints mainly in acrylic on canvas and incorporates other mediums to build textures and layers, resulting in bright, lively landscapes that are full of visual contrast.

“In my latest body of works I have been freeing up and experimenting with different painting techniques. I love the element of surprise when you don't know how the paint's going to react. This can most clearly be seen in my woodland pieces. I have tried to capture the movement in the trees and the light breaking through. I've also been using a lot of enamel paint recently and love the depth and contrast it gives.”