Luke Knight Featured Artist

LUKE KNIGHT Featured Artist

This Easter, we begin our 2021 Featured Artist series with an exhibition of new work by landscape painter Luke Knight. Luke studied Fine Art at the Cardiff School of Art and Design, and at the L’Ecole De Beaux-Art in Nantes, France.

European painting, in particular the work of Pierre Bonnard, and British maritime and landscape painters Julius Olsson and Fred Cuming RA, have been significant influences on his work.

His own exceptionally beautiful coastal paintings have won him a prestigious gallery award for rising new artists, and seen his work selected for the 2020 Royal Society of Marine Artists exhibition in London.

Memories of Treyarnon Oil on Board 50cm x 45cm £1,100

Luke’s oil on board paintings are inspired by the constantly shifting colours, textures and details of the Cornish landscape, and the beautiful scenes that inspire him whilst walking and surfing the coast.

High Tides and Holidays Oil on Board 61cm x 61cm £1,800

First saturating the board with paint, Luke strips back the surface of his works to create detail and texture, repeatedly colouring and eroding in a process that reflects the dynamic nature of the Cornish landscape.

I Walk, You Walk, We Walked Oil on Board 61cm x 61cm £1,800

This new collection responds to the north coast around Padstow and Polzeath, and further develops the artist’s interest in the subtleties of the changing seasons, and the spectacular beauty of coastal skies.

Follow the River & You’ll Find the Sea Oil on Board 61cm x 61cm £1,800

Sunrise and dusk particularly inspire Luke’s paintings, and his palette reflects the natural yet almost abstracted colours of the sky and ocean at these special times of day.

Seafood and Eat It Oil on Board 100cm x 80cm £3,875

The influence of Luke’s admiration for the work of Fred Cuming RA and James Abbott McNeill Whistler is also evident, in the soft light, subtle atmosphere and deliberate pairing of dark and jewel-like colours on a vivid ground. By contrast to the work of these great masters, however, Luke’s works are not necessarily ‘of place’: rather, they express a universal natural beauty.

The First Thing I Smelt Was the Salt in the Sea Oil on Board 100cm x 80cm £3,875

Luke’s pieces invite the viewer’s own memories through open-ended titles such as And Breathe, which the artist describes as being inspired by those tranquil outdoor places that we make our own, and in which we can quiet our mind.

And Breathe Oil on Board

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50cm x 45cm £1,100

Running Through Water was inspired by a dream and is a metaphor for pushing forward, with hopefulness, against life’s inevitable forces of resistance.

Running Through Water Oil on Board

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61cm x 61cm £1,800

The radiantly beautiful Tea For Two was inspired by the sparkling heathaze on a summer ocean, as viewed by friends or lovers from a picnic blanket on the cliffs.

Tea for Two Oil on Board 90cm x 61cm £2,675

Coffee Cup

Summer Walks

Oil on Board

Oil on Board

30.5cm x 20.5cm

38cm x 30cm

£475

£785

Porthtowan: Low Tide Cliff Stack

Winter Garden

Oil on Board

Oil on Board

40cm x 30cm

40cm x 30cm

£785

£785

The P ar ad e , Pol ze a th , Co rn wa l l , P L 2 7 6 S R 01208 869301 | art@whitewatercontemporary.co.uk www.whitewatercontemporarygallery.co.uk