Landscape paintings

Zara can also turn her hand to contemporary Cornish landscapes. She is often busy seeking out her next subject and capturing light effects with her camera and notebook. Influenced, and inspired by the Cornish landscape Zara spent many childhood holidays in North Cornwall where her father, from a family of eight, grew up after the war.

“Whenever, I am in Cornwall, I find myself fascinated by the changing beach scenes along the coast, the bands of colour in the waters and seeing friends and family wading through them on the beach. I tend to look for scenes that express my zest for plein air painting, such as a piece of coast, a stretch of water and then sand. The resonance of colours, the movement of the sea, the light and shade also inspire me to sketch in the open air, thereafter working up paintings in the studio”. Zara often paints on gesso primed paper, executing small sketches rapidly with oil thinned with medium. Sometimes these works are playfully abstracted and the colours enhanced to record a memory. From these small sketches, Zara moves to large scale canvases of 36×28 inches. “I wanted to bring about with a fresh way of seeing and painting the joy that sight itself reveals.”