Douglas Hutton
Art has always been a part of my life. While I spent 25 years as an engineer, much of my spare time was devoted to art, mainly through painting, but also drawing cartoons, sculpting, woodturning and photography. I realised that engineering was not taking me to the places that I loved and that art could, so I decided to change career and focus on painting.
I am drawn to wild places and consequently these are the main subjects for my paintings. My favourite subjects are landscapes where people have struggled to make a small and sometimes tenuous impression - a cottage, a track, a boat - and often have been beaten by circumstances. Their struggles may be long forgotten, but capturing an image of what remains hopefully hints at what their story might have been. Amongst Britain’s wild places I include landscapes in Cheshire, from the historically wild Delamere forest to the decaying industrial landscapes around Northwich as they slowly revert to nature.
Art has always been a part of my life. While I spent 25 years as an engineer, much of my spare time was devoted to art, mainly through painting, but also drawing cartoons, sculpting, woodturning and photography. I realised that engineering was not taking me to the places that I loved and that art could, so I decided to change career and focus on painting.
I am drawn to wild places and consequently these are the main subjects for my paintings. My favourite subjects are landscapes where people have struggled to make a small and sometimes tenuous impression - a cottage, a track, a boat - and often have been beaten by circumstances. Their struggles may be long forgotten, but capturing an image of what remains hopefully hints at what their story might have been. Amongst Britain’s wild places I include landscapes in Cheshire, from the historically wild Delamere forest to the decaying industrial landscapes around Northwich as they slowly revert to nature.