The Fleet by Nao McDowell

Original Oil on Canvas

Image Size 101.5cm x height 101.5 cm width

Framed Size 105.5 cm height x 105.5 cm width

Artist Profile

McDowell was born in Cambridge, graduated with a degree in Ecology and then studied Fine Art at Oxford Brookes. In the beginning, she spent days at a time cycling around London, capturing interesting planes and angles of the city’s architecture with her camera and sketchbook.

Through these investigations, she became increasingly interested in the wonders of the natural world, fascinated by what seemed to be ordered colours and architectural lines which have occurred organically, without any human intervention.

Preferring to paint ‘en plein air’ (out on location), McDowell spends as much time as possible visiting beaches and coastal paths, often on the south coast of Devon, or sailing round the west coast of Scotland. Always with a sketchbook and pencils to hand, her inspirational artworks have been described as radiant abstractions of landscape and coastline.

After sketching and photographing a scene, McDowell breaks it down into architectural shapes – horizon lines, blocks of cloud, of unexpected peaks and troughs created by the wind on the surface of the sea. When she returns to her London studio, she uses this extensive source material to create luminous representations of the environment she has just experienced.

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Prefer to collect? Click & Collect is available from our Norfolk galleries in Norwich, Holt and Thornham.

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