‘As the deep winter settles around us, I wanted to draw your attention to two paintings I’ve selected from our online gallery this month as examples of where you might try to look for inspiration’ says Jane Stroud this month. ‘Thomas Jarratt has used photographs of a scene he knows well to create his beautifully atmospheric landscape from the warmth of his studio, while Rodney Kingston thrives on painting the everyday. He has managed to turn a very humble subject into a vibrant painting, setting himself the task of finishing it in a limited time frame. So there’s no excuse – there are painting subjects everywhere!’

Thomas Jarratt, known as John to his family and friends, was a commercial artist for all of his career, which required him to draw, but not paint. It wasn’t until retirement that he started to paint, teaching himself and working through the various media until he settled on oils.

‘This picture was prompted by a landscape competition I entered in a local magazine. The scene is one that my wife and I regularly walk, on the approach to Ayot St Lawrence – a small Hertfordshire village, where George Bernard Shaw lived and worked’ says Thomas.

Late Snow near Ayot St. Lawrence, oil on canvas, (35.5x66cm) by Thomas Jarratt

See more work by Thomas in the PaintersOnline gallery by clicking here.

Rodney Kingston is a full-time graphic designer on a weekly magazine, but finds time in the evenings and weekends to paint.

Golden Syrup, oil on canvas, (20x25.5cm), (see below) was part of a still-life series of food products that included ketchup, coke bottles, Campbell’s soup, Oxo cubes and Marmite.

You can see more from Rodney in the PaintersOnline gallery by clicking here.

Read more about both artists, and their selected paintings, in the February 2017 issue of Leisure Painter, click here to purchase your copy.