My name is Greg Howard and I am a landscape painter based in the English Lake District where inspiration for my work is never hard to find.  I paint primarily in watercolour but also work in soft-pastel. I’ve been painting for over thirty years and having been sharing my approach through regular demonstrations & workshops across the UK for the last 15 years and more recently through my online watercolour academy. 

I was very lucky to have been regularly exposed to scenery that literally takes your breath away from a very young age and most of my fondest memories are of times spent climbing the mountains. I have however always been acutely aware that unfortunately the vast majority of people will never see many of these beautiful places.  So, in some small way I try through my work to share my impressions of the beautiful scenery that we are so lucky to have in abundance here in the U.K.

My subject matter is taken from the many memories I have of the many, many places I have walked & climbed. Over the years I have developed a kind of mental shorthand so that when I visit somewhere I know what I need to pay attention to and equally what I can ignore.  My aim when evaluating a potential subject is to recall enough of what is apparent in the landscape in front of me to be able to replicate the scene so it is recognisable but at the same time I try to siphon out as much of the extraneous detail as possible.

This allows me to be as creative as I like in my approach, allowing the painting to breathe and take on its own life whilst still remaining faithful to the original scene.

My philosophy is that when a particular place holds a special place in our hearts it is not the details of the physical location that we remember but rather the way we feel when we are there. It is the emotions felt in a place that help us forge the memory and form the attachment.  So rather than being overly concerned with painting every detail of a particular landscape accurately I strive more to capture the mood & atmosphere of a place.

In my mind my job as a landscape painter is to capture the raw essence of a place while leaving enough room for my viewer to come along and build their own story around the piece interpreting each element of the painting in their own unique way giving them a work of art that is truly theirs. 

This approach also means that each painting I sell holds a special place in the affections of the person who purchased it as it literally embodies their personal story or experience of a place. These are not just pretty pictures to hang on the wall!

Watercolour is my main medium although I don’t necessarily use it in the traditional way.  Instead, I prefer to explore the medium to its full potential using a combination of inventive techniques and will also incorporate other mediums into my process if I feel it will make the resulting painting stronger and more impactful. 

I was very fortunate to have been exposed to the work of some fantastic artists when I was making my first tentative steps as an artist who were basically pioneers in what could be done with watercolour when you just let it have a bit of freedom. These artists were certainly not traditionalists and would revel in the opportunity to break a lot of the so-called rules of watercolour at any opportunity and it is this rebellious approach to the medium that I love and employ to this day in my own work.

After all it’s the results that matter not how you get there!

If you have any questions about any of the work on display or indeed my methods please feel free to get in touch. You can contact me here.

As Billy Connolly would say thanks very much for listening to my inane drivel!