For artist Graham Rider, it isn’t enough to walk into the countryside and paint an attractive landscape.

Instead, the painter likes to get to the heart of the scene he is trying to capture, and to try and give his paintings a real sense of the energy and vibrancy he sees in the Manx beaches and countryside.

Graham opened his first solo exhibition on the island, entitled ’Hinterland’, at the Isle Contemporary Gallery last weekend.

The display is a striking collection of land and sea scenes that show Graham’s new-found appreciation for the Manx countryside.

Originally from London, he moved to the island in 2017 from Norfolk, and has since taken on a studio space at Grenaby Studios.

He has previously shown paintings at joint exhibitions and at an earlier display at the former Noa Bakehouse.

’I have a painted local landscapes, mountain scenes, and I have also painted hidden waterfalls, which I tend to go and visit during different parts of the seasons,’ said Graham.

’I wanted to give a sense of the structures and the natural forms of what I see, how the water falls down the hills, how it forms into rivers, all those different things.’

From the changing colour of the hillsides to the wind-blown beach grass of the Ayres, Graham manages to give an atmospheric sense of the places he has painted.

’If you are there, and you walk up the mountains, if you take the time to really see what’s around you, they are very dynamic places.

’It is tricky to retain all that in the pictures. You have to gather all that information there, and take it back indoors with you, remember how the wind and the energy of the water rushing down and then make sure they all go into the picture. ’It’s an experience thing as much as an information thing.

’You have to keep looking deeper and deeper into the structures of the landscape and see how the elements all connect, where the footpaths lie and so on, and somehow tune into it.’

He has developed a particular affinity for the long beaches in the north of the island.

’I think the Ayres are an amazing place,’ he said.

’It’s a beach like you don’t see anywhere else.

’It is so quiet walking up to the lighthouse, and you rarely see any people there, and you get the sense that it is a beach that is really a part of nature.

’Hinterland is open to view until Sunday, May 12.

by Mike Wade

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