Abstract Landscape Paintings
Inspired by Nature & Memory, 2022-24
Michelle Cobbin’s work is deeply rooted in the landscapes that have shaped her life. Drawing inspiration from two distinct environments—the chalky hills of the South Downs near her home in Sussex, and the flat, expansive terrain of East Anglia where she grew up—Michelle’s art reflects her ongoing connection with the land.
The South Downs, with its rolling hills, ancient chalk paths, and sweeping vistas, offers Michelle a constant connection to nature. The landscape’s subtle changes, from the calm greens of summer to the muted tones of winter, inform her work. She captures not only the physical beauty of this landscape but also the underlying emotions and atmosphere it evokes. Michelle seeks to convey the essence of the place—its energy, history, and presence—through her paintings.
Similarly, the flat, expansive landscape of East Anglia, home to her ancestors, continues to influence Michelle’s practice. The wide horizons and open skies create a profound sense of space and openness in her work.
In her paintings, Michelle captures the 'felt essence' of these landscapes, going beyond their physical attributes to explore the emotional and personal connections she has to them. By evoking the mood, atmosphere, and presence of a place, she invites viewers to experience these landscapes through her eyes, offering a window into her internal landscape of memory, reflection, and connection to the land.
Wild Violet
Chalk Sunset. Acrylic on canvas. 130 x 80 cm
Lustre. Acrylic on canvas, 80 x 80 cm
Artefact. Acrylic & graphite on canvas
Hidden Treasure. Acrylic on canvas
Litha. Oil on canvas, 76 x 101 cm
Downland Orchids. Oil & acrylic on canvas, 120 x 80 cm
Midsummer. Oil on canvas, 76 x 101 cm
Flinty II. Acrylic on wood panel. 20 x 20 cm
Flinty I. Acrylic on wood panel. 20 x 20 cm
Beneath the Surface. Acrylic on wood panel. 20 x 20 cm
Review of exhibition ‘ I’d Be Enlightened Now If It Wasn’t For You’ by Geoff Hands
I have often thought that abstraction in painting without overt reference to a particular narrative, scenario or specific space lends itself to a notion of timelessness, or of historical time collapsed into simply the experience of looking at and experiencing a work of art – something one might unashamedly describe as the aesthetic experience. This notion of the material here and now counterpoised by a more expanded sense of place is philosophically, as well as artistically, intriguing. Such an experience is not exclusive to abstract painting of course, as might paradoxically be seen in still-life painting (I am thinking of works by Giorgio Morandi and Peter Dreher) that both acknowledges a social reality and a particular time and place yet exudes a sense of ongoing visual engagement irrespective of the date on the back of the canvas. A kind of meta-reality embedded in paint and its various qualities.
In Cobbin’s oeuvre you will find that the landscape is implicit but not essential to identify and in this selection of six works the viewer will travel across the colour spectrum and from dark to light. The titles are generally broad and non-specific, although ‘Bridge’ and ‘In The Top Field’ keep our feet on the ground alongside ‘Atmosphere’, ‘Lament’, ‘Phosphorescence’ and ‘Hidden’.
To start the discussion with Michelle Cobbin I borrowed John Bunker’s first question for Peter Lamb from the new series of ‘Abstraction in the Now’ interviews from Instantloveland. “Can you remember the first abstract painting to make a real impression on you?” is a brilliantly simple gambit to open up a deeper conversation that delves into the past to relate to the present, and implicitly the future, in one’s practice.