The Cinematic Landscape Series
It Sounds Like A Dodgy 80s Band But Is Actually A Group of Beautiful Paintings by Artist Kit Glaisyer
Six Degrees of Inspiration - An Interview With The Artist Kit Glaisyer from 2022
This is one of a series of interviews I carried out with creatives from my area as part of a monthly Arts and Culture Column for a local business website.
Kit’s artistic journey has taken him from water colour landscaped to Kings Road abstracts and has now brought him back home to Dorset. He now paints stunning cinematic landscapes that have narrative running through them. He immerses himself in the landscapes he paints and his process for building texture and light is painstaking, and time consuming taking up to eight months to complete. But there is a quality and movement in Kit’s landscapes that lesser painters often miss. You can feel your eye being drawn into the low lying early morning mist in the Bride Valley at the foot of Eggardon Hill like a great movie director would slowly sweep across the scene. My own view on landscape painting was that it was a bit dull, a bit retiree but these works are vibrant and alive much like the land they come from
Kit Glaisyer’s views on creativity and art are fascinating and insightful.
1. What inspires your creative ideas?
Currently it's the West Dorset landscape, where I've lived for over 20 years. But I also find inspiration all around, in films, books, architecture, music, travel, Youtube, Instagram, or just conversations with visitors to my gallery.
2. Why are arts and culture important to everyone?
In the modern world we're surrounded by advertising, propaganda and social media, all of which want something from you. But Art really has no agenda, instead it invites quiet reflection, a deeper appreciation of the world at large, and can offer inspiration for enjoying a richer life.
3. What advice would you give to a business to help them become more creative?
Find ways for your staff to explore their own creativity. The more they are able to access their own creativity then the more that will enhance their ability to think creatively at work. Perhaps set up a fund to encourage staff to choose their own courses in painting, art history, music, meditation or Tai Chi.
4. Who is your creative hero?
The artist Damian Hirst. He makes very different art to me, but I have great respect for his attitude to both art, business and innovation. He has the ability to think on a far bigger scale than most people, and to always be pushing himself into ever more outlandish projects, ones that most of us probably talk ourselves out of. He is a constant reminder to get out of your comfort zone and pursue those ideas that no on else would dare to try.
5. What piece of creative work are you most proud of?
My series of Cinematic Landscape paintings, an ambitious series of paintings over the last fifteen years across the West Country. Many of these paintings were commissions that took me to unexplored locations, and the challenge was to then capture an atmospheric moment of great beauty. It might take me several weeks of visits before I chanced upon a moment of particular interest, or I might simply be overwhelmed by all the choices of what to paint. I also insist on having eight months to work on each commission as I use a traditional oil painting technique of slowly building up glazes (layers of paint) over several weeks and months. The rest of the time is spent on research, preparing ideas and sketches, and then allowing the painting time to evolve into something truly unique and siqnificant.
6. What are you working on now?
My current series of Theatrical landscape paintings is inspired by the ever-changing views from Eggardon Hill in West Dorset. I started this series during the 1st lockdown as I wanted to find a nearby vista through which I could express the full range of emotions that we were all going through.
You can see Kit Glaisyer’s work on his website
www.kitglaisyer.com
