Scarlett Raven returns with powerful Lasting Impressions collection

Scarlett's influences

Scarlett has developed her vivid landscapes since her last collection, painting from images she has photographed near her home, and working in her signature impasto style with great physicality, digging into the layers of paint as a farmer would into the soil. “I’m really proud of this collection,” says Scarlett. “A 22-painting series is a huge journey, and this is only the beginning”. The pieces are available as stunning original pieces, as well as limited editions in a choice of boxed canvas or giclee on paper.

“Van Gogh is the reason I paint,” explains Scarlett. “In the short period of time he painted and lived, the way he was able to see the world was incredible and I’m trying to see the world in the capacity that he did.

“David Hockney also loved Van Gogh’s work; both artists see the extraordinary in an unremarkable view and both are fascinated by the seasons, which bring about continuous change in nature. David Hockney once said: ‘Lots of people scan the ground in front of them so they can walk, but they don’t really look at things. Van Gogh really looked’. Now I am really looking.

“In his early career, Hockney moved to Los Angeles and didn’t see the point in painting nature. Only in his later life when he moved back to England and saw what nature really is, he dedicated his life to it and became fascinated,” Scarlett explains.

She, too is driven by a passion for portraying nature. “The sun and moon are always an important feature in my work as they provide life, and everything on the planet relies on it to survive to be seen. I am guided by nature when I paint my scenes.

“Lasting Impressions is definitely a progression, a growth, a movement from my last collections. It incorporates everything I’ve learnt, physically, technically, emotionally. Everything has been building up and influencing this collection”.

Making Lasting Impressions

Lasting Impressions is Scarlett’s first collection since she returned from maternity leave, and a lot has changed in the meantime. “This is the first time I’ve painted realism, working from photographs I’ve taken from roaming where I live, searching for scenery to paint. I’ve been gathering a feel and understanding of myself through being more conscious of my surroundings”.

In the studio, she has found herself painting subjects and using colours that are new to her, incorporating the importance of the light source. She has been inspired and changed by being the mother of two children. “I feel that this collection is a milestone for me. I physically put everything into these pieces. Motherhood has made me absorb things quickly and has made me grounded and present. My children are teaching me.

I took a couple of months just drawing and planning out ideas that would never be seen under all the paint, but I wanted to get my first layers right so they would grow into the picture I wanted. I’ve never planned so much with a collection. I felt that this groundwork has been so important in the final paintings.

“I’ve got even closer to heavy body acrylic, and I paint on the floor of my studio. Creating these pieces was almost as if I was working in the land; building up layers on layers so it goes from flat to textured - it’s like a landscape changing over the seasons.

"It feels like I’m making something grow out of nothing, I nurture my pieces, and sculpt the paint like a gardener or farmer would do with their land. I wait for the paint to dry before I can add my next layer, and because of the thickness of the paint, they can take months to dry.

“As I’ve evolved and experienced life more, so has this collection. I’ve been amazed by the patchwork patterns I’ve seen in the landscape and I feel like these landscapes have been knitted like a quilt; a gift to keep you warm, a landscape to keep you safe. This collection is a gift from nature and how it makes us feel.

“We gravitate towards Mother Nature and both the farmer and the artist use the elements to create a conversation that is completely guided by nature itself”.