Mike Embden

After a successful career as an illustrator in the 1970s and 1980s, I decided to devote myself to landscape painting. This has always been a major preoccupation in my work and is driven by a passion for the natural world.

In recent years I've made a series of larger paintings of the South Downs. I love the soft, rolling forms of the hills and coombs with their ancient cuttings, paths and droveways. I'm particularly interested in low light and long shadows that can reveal these forms to dramatic effect, often creating a poetic or soulful quality.