The Original Itinerant Artist

Gazing over the Pewsey Vale from its lofty hillside is the Alton Barnes White Horse. Records have it that the horse carving was commissioned in 1812 by a local farmer, and the job given to an 'itinerant artist' called Jack the Painter. True to his nature Jack disappeared before the job was done, and he was later caught and hung for this and other unfinished business....

.......I rather like the idea of an intinerant artist, wandering through the landscape and painting wherever a picture presents itself, or carving a white horse for that matter.

Welcome to my gallery of landscape paintings: I hope you enjoy browsing through the pictures and reading the stories that accompany them. Many are from the local Wiltshire area, with others from further afield.  

My ideal painting day would be to sit with my easel in the sunshine, (probably listening to Test Match Special) recording the changing light and landscape. Some of these pictures are painted in the open air, with the rest being studio paintings, drawn up from sketches or photographs.

I have no formal artistic training, with my style being influenced by the work of recent English landscape artists such as Edward Seago, Rowland Hilder, Gordon Benningfield and Edward Wesson.

I hope you enjoy the pictures; most are for sale so please get in touch if you would like to buy one, or search on ebay under 'Paul Oakley'