Palette 89 - "Over The Hills and Far Away" is an oil painting on canvas framed with a dark brown wooden tray frame, by Somerset artists Jim Whitty.

Jim Whitty's palette paintings start life as a pallet for larger paintings, they have a random nature and an image grows out of the marks. The layers build up over time which can give them a jewel like quality over time.

His themes are universal: the woods, stars, sea, and weather patterns such as a snowstorm. The artist creates an almost meditative quality in his work. He is striving for a pared back simplicity that the viewer can get lost in for a long time. There is an ambiguity to these scenes that change in different lights and absorb the viewer in to their world.

Jim Whitty spent much of his childhood travelling in Nigeria, Malawi and Greece. One point of constancy was the family’s cottage on the Isle of Skye, Scotland. He was always fascinated by nature as a child: both observing clouds and sunsets and exploring landscapes by being outside a lot of the time.

In a world of increasing information overload, Jim Whitty finds the calm continuity of nature more and more compelling. The dance of light on water and through green leaves, provides sanctuary to the human spirit that goes deep into our subconscious, fulfilling a primal need to retreat to cave, woods and river.

Jim Whitty says 'Nature never ceases to amaze me. I find the woods are particularly good for injecting a dreamlike quality into my paintings because not only are they constantly shifting space, but they are already loaded with their own deep -rooted mythology. They are a place of shelter, but danger, a place to escape modern life and get lost, enveloped in nature, and when sunlight dances through the green leaves, they are a place of magic.'

Dimensions: 30 x 40 cm

Material: Oil on Canvas framed with a dark brown wooden tray frame

Jim Whitty

Palette 89 - "Over The Hills and Far Away" Framed Oil Painting