Top 50 Oil Paint Artists You Need to Know About (And Their Iconic Work)

Lily Hargreaves paints scenes from an alternate timeline, her canvases inviting viewers out of their world and into one that parodies, probes, and pulls at the seams of contemporary institutions. By constructing a world of intense detail, Hargreaves exploits the omnipotence of the artist, mapping her characters’ reactions as they negotiate warps in seemingly fixed ideas like time and reality to discover new, unburdened modes of existence. Although contemporary in its concerns, her imagery is often historically inclined, playing with ideas of linearity and cyclicism as threads of past, present, and future entangle. This allows for an expanded and experimental approach to storytelling, with characters and places appearing and reappearing through different tangents of what could be a never-ending series. The project exists as a sort of Ergodic literature, individual compositions overlapping to produce dense tableaux wherein every element is imbued with symbolic importance. Hargreaves’ theatrical approach to the installation of her paintings prompts a viewer to play an active part, investigating the images for clues from which to build their own narrative and, in turn, meaning. Overall, she celebrates the transcendent freedom of the imagination not only as a momentary escape away from a 21st century in flux, but also as a place to manifest new realities.

I am a plein-air oil painter best known for my Yorkshire seascapes and beach scenes. I believe that working outside, directly in front of the subject, gives my work a life and vibrancy sadly lacking in much of studio work. My paintings can be seen in homes and galleries throughout the UK and the USA - and many other places too. In 2013 I won the Oldie, £5000, British Art Award. As well as being a painter I am also a professor of mathematics, specialising in relativity and cosmology. About 10 years ago I took a sabbatical and started painting for fun. I think the thing that first attracted me was John Ruskin's exhortation that all men, as part of their morning salutations, should go out and paint a picture of the sky. This sounded like a very nice thing to do, so I decided to give it a go, and I've not really stopped painting since. My professorship is from the University of Linkoping in Sweden where I worked for several years. I also do some teaching at York University. My research work deals mostly with black holes, gravitational radiation and cosmology. I am the author of quite a well-known book called General Relativity - A Geometric Approach, published by Cambridge University Press (also available in a French translation with a preface by Sir Roger Penrose). I find little incompatibility between my mathematical work and my painting: both are based on geometrical intuition, one internal the other external. I live and work in York.

Lilia Orlova-Holmes creates expressionist paintings that capture ethereal ‘gardenscapes’. Lilia follows an intuitive process, using fresh colours, delicate textures and gestural brushstrokes. Her final paintings combine memories, thoughts, and real and imaginary places, imbued with spontaneity and movement. Lilia opens her paintings to the viewer’s interpretation, encouraging a spectrum of experiences and understandings. Lilia works from her studio at Nucleus Art Center in Medway. She enjoys being a part of a creative community of over 40 artists and regularly exhibits at The Halpern gallery and Halpern Pop in Chatham and Rochester. Lilia has many collectors around the world and in the UK. In 2022 she exhibited her works at the John Davies Gallery in Cotswold and participated in The Other Art fair, organised by Saatchi art in London.

I am a self-taught artist learning by observation of other artist's work, but fundamentally I am wanting to respond to the environment around me and capturing colourful experiences in simple brush strokes . I have exhibited twice at the Great Sheffield Art show. This year I hosted for 'Open Up', a Sheffield event, where I used my studio and garden to exhibit over 40 of my pictures.

Jade Connolly (b.1998) Blackburn. Currently living in London. Jade Connolly deals with the dynamics of interior space and is interested in the passages, rooms, and transitional spaces within the inhabited home. Her work investigates psychological spaces and explores the meanings behind different rooms and transitional spaces. Jade likes to experiment with her mark-making ranging from delicate shallow fields of intense colour to flat opaque gestural brushstrokes. Painted in a range of saturated and muted tones of mostly blue, green, and yellow, Jade’s latest series depicts rooms and passageways from her childhood home, reflecting the conflicting feelings of calmness and anxiety resulting from different lived experiences. In addition to her paintings, Jade has made quick painterly studies of interiors in both ink and watercolour, again focusing on the environment she knows best. The relationship between the artist and subject is vital and the role of the viewer has become central to Jade’s work, they become a witness, an observer. The lack of details invites the spectator to complete the image by speculating on past and impending events. She infuses her paintings of desolate interiors with a cinematic aspect and an appreciation of light and shade which contributes to a significant sense of isolation. Jade has long been fascinated with the work of the French Philosopher Gaston Bachelard and is inspired by painters such as Tim Eitel, Lois Dodd, Paul Winstanley, Vermeer, and Hammershøi.

A self- employed artist living in the north east. https://sandrahaney.artweb.com/ . My paintings are inspired by landscapes, mostly from my local walks. My work sells internationally via online and physical galleries and has been selected for publication in Art Review magazines 2021 and 2022.I have been an exhibiting artist since 1988, have held several solo exhibitions and also participated in many group exhibitions, including juried ones. My work sells via online galleries and through local physical galleries: The Biscuit Factory and Gallagher & Turner Gallery, Newcastle upon Tyne. My landscape painting was selected for publication by Circle Foundation Quarterly Review, Fall 2021, and LandEscape Art Review July 2022.

Every few months, Art Post artists unite to create an original piece of artwork - celebrating iconic masterpieces and our wonderful city of Sheffield. Each piece created by the collective is showcased on the limited edition Sheffield Art Totes.

I am a multi disciplinary artist working in a variety of mediums: oil on canvas, stone carving and clay sculpture and traditional hand cut photomontage. Drawn to the figure and working primarily in oils, I like to paint using the medium expressively. I also work in a contrasting linear style where I deconstruct the forms into flowing lines of simple geometry and flat colour – that’s the designer in me. In recent years my work has become more sculptural and monumental in form, it was inevitable that I would explore sculpture as a medium. Now clay forms and direct stone carving has become an increasing part of my creative output. The paintings and sculptures often portray the juxtaposition of a strong exterior presence but unmasking the soft vulnerability that lies beneath. Continually fascinated and inspired by the human form I draw upon feelings of isolation and alienation; people connecting or not connecting.

I am Andrea Solaja. When I was ten I lived in a bunker for several months while my country, Serbia, was being bombed. My sole source of relief to escape from the horrors of those days was imagining worlds and creating stories inside the light of the only candle I had. The shadows projected on the walls would turn into the shapes of the ever changing characters of my imagination, I can see my fingers weaving evanescent details which blended with the condensation and the cold. That light shone on an outer space which was too small for a child. I had to create one to become internal, immense. I hold my childhood and its dreams inside that small flame. I sealed the darkness I had inside with the wax, and with the wick I tied the memories of a life which was not going to be mine anymore. My art unfolds around the narration of that light. My paintings are symbionts of the game of contrasting light and dark which narrate without revealing, which drain my inner feelings on the canvas preventing the shapes from becoming obstacles.

I graduated from Gray’s School of Art in Aberdeen with a BA (hons) degree in Fine Art in 1996. After a year of working and travelling in Canada, I moved to Edinburgh where I had a WASPS studio at Dalry for seven years. My work has been exhibited in solo and group exhibitions across the UK. I now live in West Lothian and paint in my studio at home. My practice has developed through an exploration of places and the memories, moments and stories attached to them. I am interested in personhood and how we each have our own story: a patchwork of experiences and interactions with the world that make us who we are and influences future decisions and relationships in a continual process. I am inspired by places, colour, pattern, metaphors, and words. My small works are single records of experience. I attempt to interweave these into my larger paintings, combining them with narrative, memories (my own and those of others), imagined situations and a personal inventory of symbolic images.

Matthew Watts studied at West Surrey College of Art and Design and has worked as a graphic designer and artist since the late 1990’s. His work has been displayed in galleries in both Bath, Bristol and London. His paintings are primarily portraits and figurative pictures. Working in the highly diverse medium of oil, the aim is not to create a picture of a particular person, rather it explores the process of mark making, colour and the paint itself, in an endeavour to create an image that will stand on its own.  Often working from life or found images, these starting points are not transposed onto a surface but are used as a jumping off point. It is hoped that the qualities of the paint and mark making will create an energy that supplants attempts at likeness and realism. Ultimately it’s an attempt at going beyond an image that is demonstratively decorative but rather create a picture that is its own source of energy.

Stuart Jones is an outdoor landscape painter living in Newcastle upon Tyne. Born in 1981, he gained an MA in Fine Art at Newcastle University in 2007 and a PGCE in Art Education at Northumbria University in 2008. Stuart regularly shows his work in national and regional exhibitions and is a founding member of the painting group Plein Air North East. Working 'en plein air' or 'in the open air' from life in the landscape is what drives Stuart’s work. His goal is to convey a sense of the light, mood and atmosphere when painting on location and his work is characterised as being impressionistic in style. He finds that seeing and recording directly from nature develops an immediacy and energy to his brushwork. Every mark is of the moment with each painting developed using the fat over lean process. Stuart is continually inspired by man's presence in the landscape, the different seasons and capturing a sense of the light.

My name is Sophie-Rose Walters and I am a Birmingham based artist. I have been massively involved in the art scene from a very young age. I specialise In fine liner black and white art, graffiti art, oil paint and ink work. My paintings are usually abstract as I like to experiment with colour and texture. I like to make my own stencils for my artwork. I like to use influences of Andy Warhol and Piet Mondrian. I admire how simple yet creative the work of these artists was. I recently got more involved In the Digbeth art scene of Birmingham by being involved in a small exhibition along side other artists to which I displayed 10 pieces of work and sold smaller prints of my work in the gallery shop. I am hoping to extend my knowledge and become more involved in the art scene all over the country as I like to meet other artists and exchange ideas of ways I can make my art better, what I could do differently and how I could portray it differently. I find this helps.

Shaun Morris sees himself as a painter of landscapes, although he strives desperately to avoid all the connotations and associations that the tradition of landscape painting may conjure up. He doesn’t paint the seemingly picturesque; the bucolic countryside or the dramatic coast as, from his home in the urban sprawl of Birmingham and its surrounding areas, he doesn’t live anywhere near these places. He paints the Sainsbury’s car-park, the local bus stop or the disused telephone box. He may paint nature, but it’s the nature of the common edgelands and woods, or the canals or beneath the motorways, and nature at the feet of the pylons that loom on the edge of the housing estates and the ruins and edges of the post-industrial landscape where he grew up. The paintings are often set at night, inspired by the artist’s frequent night walks. Shortlisted for the Jerwood Drawing Prize, he has exhibited widely including the Surface Gallery, Nottingham; The Atkinson Gallery in Somerset; Nuneaton Museum and Art Gallery; Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery, Ikon Gallery, Birmingham and the Asylum Gallery in Wolverhampton. Shaun has an MA in Fine Art, Painting, from Norwich School of Art and Design (1995), and has work in private and public collections in the UK and overseas. Shaun was recently seen as a contestant on Sky Arts Landscape Artist of the Year.

I have lived in Sheffield for four years whilst being a student at the University of Sheffield. I am currently studying for a masters degree in Science Communication, but have always had a passion for art, and completed an Art Foundation Diploma prior to university. During lockdown, I started to use art more frequently as a creative release alongside my studies, rediscovering my art social media account from my Art Foundation days. I found myself painting a lot outside in the sun and enjoyed sharing what I’d done online so I’ve continued with it ever since and it’s just grown from there. I really enjoy creating landscapes, particularly of places that mean a lot to me or I frequently visit. More recently I have also got in to creating digital designs as well as biro drawn studies of people and having been getting quite a few commissions along the way which has been really heart-warming and a productive way to spend my time when I’m not doing university work. I have plans in the near future to do some more Sheffield landscapes so you can follow me online if you’d be interested in seeing more of that!

I did not start in art in the normal way, having decided back in school that I perhaps had some ability but not a special talent. Instead becoming a hairdresser. Hairdressing for many years was not just what I did, but who I was. When I first picked up a paint brush after nearly 45 years it felt good, in fact very good! Working with hair helped to develop a feel for style, colour, form and aesthetics, so I felt sure I could, and would, be able to paint well. So, what could possibly go wrong? With a lot of work, dedication and more than just a touch of obsession it has gone pretty well to date. My landscapes are built from earth, water, air, weather, shadow and light. Combined with strokes, marks, glazes, scratches and scrapes in a wide array of fine art materials, hopefully representative and recognizable but not constrained by detail. When all comes together there is a sense of space and place in a moment in time.

Oli’s work seeks to portray arresting figurative forms in a way that unlocks the viewer's imagination and perception of how the world around us is viewed, presented and re-presented. His aim is to encourage the viewer to question perception and aesthetics, to raise a smile in the mind. Oli is drawn to finding and re-presenting beauty in unexpected contexts - how often do we look at filling stations, industrial buildings or road markings and see beauty? Mumby’s work encourages the viewer to look, and more importantly see. In a bid to step away from realism and explore a more expressive and stylistic approach to figurative painting and mark-making, much of Oli’s recent work combines collage and paper cut with mixed media.

Molly Brocklehurst (b.1994) is a British figurative painter based in South London. She graduated with a BA (distinction) in Fine Art from Leeds College of Art in 2016 before completing her masters at Wimbledon College of Art in 2019. Brocklehurst's work has been exhibited in the United Kingdom, Scandinavia and Miami, recently showing work at the Maddox Gallery in Mayfair and had work included in the Wing’s private collection in London. She was named a 'Women To Watch, Top 10 Emerging Female Artists by the Maddox Gallery in 2020 and a Saatchi Art Rising Star in 2019. Molly Brocklehurst's work is characterised by her use of a limited pallet, often separated within the composition. Her paintings are strange fictions that blur the boundary between recollection and fantasy. Being nostalgic for our lost histories, Brocklehurst uses a muted pallet and varying layers of visibility and repetition to address time, loss and memory.

Michael Bishop has worked and exhibited in London and New York and his paintings are in many private collections worldwide. His work was used for the London Tube poster 'Downtown to Soho' in 1996, magazine covers such 'Science' as well as being featured in 'Vogue', The Observer' and 'The Times'. During his stay in New York from 1990 until 1995, he illustrated a version of Frances Hodsgon Burnett's 'The Secret Garden' for publishers Hugh Later Levin. He paints mainly landscapes, urban landscapes and seascapes and lives in Worthing on the South coast of England.

Martin Davis is an ex-fire fighter turned artist. After university he spent more than 30 years in the fire and rescue service, during which time he found painting was a perfect antidote to the stresses of his operational working life. He committed himself fully to his art in 2008 after retirement and has spent the last 13 years finding his distinctive artistic voice. Martin is, by admission, an instinctive artist. Almost wholly self-trained, his only formal qualification is an ArtGCE “O” level from his schooldays. Even so his artwork is bought by private collectors around the world and he has secured gallery space through-out the UK as well as here in his native Derbyshire where he works from his home studio in Swanwick. His most recent successes were being selected to exhibit in the prestigious Harley Gallery Open and ING Discerning Eye exhibitions 2020.

Marianna’s art reflects her passion for nature, with a regular focus on light. Inspiration could come from a woodland on a spring evening, or under the surface of a lake on a winter’s day. As a keen climber, hiker, trail runner and wild swimmer, Marianna gains a lot of inspiration from her adventures. Marianna’s interest in environmental conservation and exploration is not only visible in her artwork, but also in her writing. Following a Master’s degree in journalism, she went on to become a journalist, writing articles for the National Geographic, Wanderlust, HuffPost, Summit, Climate Action Programme, among others. More recently, Marianna’s artwork has begun to explore her interest in the human form and in portraiture. She is always open to exploring whichever direction her vision takes her.

A graduate of Falmouth College of Art, Jill lives and works in Cornwall. Whatever her surroundings, they challenge her to translate them, the Cornish coast being no exception - the beauty of the sea is ever changing, holding the promise of freedom...or adventure. During her degree she studied for three months at the Accademia di Belli Arti, Venice. Since then, she has been further afield to travel in Peru and Mexico, the Arctic - taking her paints with her. In 2005 she went to work as Expedition Artist with Raleigh International in Chile. In 2015 Jill worked on the first International Arts festival in Bhutan, creating a large processional willow sculpture. Travel, different cultures, working with wonderful people have all blended into inspiration for her artwork, and excitement about the world around her. She continues to try to capture beauty within her work, predominantly working in oils, but excited by different media, gold leaf, lino print, fresco. Her art is about the landscape of life in all its forms – it’s fleetingness, it’s poetry, it’s loneliness, and it’s reality.

Jen Orpin graduated from Manchester Metropolitan University in 1996 with a degree in Fine Art. She lives in Manchester and joined Rogue Artists’ Studios in 2000. As well as exhibiting UK wide, selling her paintings nationally and internationally, her work has been accepted into several Open Art exhibitions. She made the long list for the Jackson’s Open Painting Prize 2018, 19 and 2020 and in 2018 she appeared in Sky Arts Landscape Artist of the Year where the judges chose her in their top three for the heat. In 2020 she was one of 20 shortlisted artists from a submission entry of 2,000 in the first HOME Open exhibition Manchester and was also selected for The New Light Art Prize and the ING discerning Eye Exhibition. 2021 has seen her have a solo show at the Manchester Modernist Society, show at Saul Hay Fine Art, The Gallery Holt in Norfolk, selected for the Wells Art Contemporary and The Bankley Open Call. Her paintings have appeared in two publications in conjunction with the Modernist Society and a project called Landscapes of Post War Infrastructure. In May her motorway paintings featured in the Guardian online and The Observer's New Review arts and culture magazine.

Fee Dickson Reid creates expressive, atmospheric large-scale seascapes filled with a sense of calm and peace. Her work is about the solace of the sea, the light filled skies above her local beaches, reflections on sand and water. She aims to find the ‘still point in a turning world’, to anchor the viewer to a place and a state of mind that is about tranquillity and connection to the natural world. Fee paints primarily in oils in the studio or occasionally with mixed media in situ on the beach. Her paintings are almost always completed ‘alla prima’, all in one session, and usually respond to the immediate weather, season, or light she has experienced that day on the beach – spirit of place is a core element of her work. Fee trained in architecture at Edinburgh College of Art, graduating with a 1st class degree in 1996 and began exhibiting professionally as an artist in 2010. An award winning artist, her work is held in collections private and public worldwide.

I am an artist based in Sheffield. My principle preoccupation is with the post industrial urban landscape of this city. I paint what I like but I have taken on many commissions for people who like the way I paint. My paintings are underpinned by a delight in the marriage of nature, light and the built environment.

I am an artist who was based in Sheffield, where I studied my Bachelor’s degree and Masters in Fine Art. During my time there I was focusing on ways of reflecting the viewer into the position of the artwork using paintings of mirrors and reflective surfaces within landscapes. In My most recent work I have been creating a series of landscapes depicting two scenes showing structures that I find to be of interest, and looking at how composition and colour can bring these structures to the core of an image. I am constantly using reference images as foundations for paintings from photographs taken from the everyday. I find inspiration from everything as I like to blend the art into the everyday, from taking photographs, videos and sound recording to eventually use as reference or to spark an idea for a piece of work. For me it’s about noticing a subtle idea and manipulating it untill it becomes the centre of attention.

Covadonga Valdés (b.1966) studied at Chelsea College of Art (1988-92) and Slade School of Fine Art (1992-94). Awarded: Abbey Fellowship in Painting, British School at Rome, Italy (20011-12) Painting Residency, Hickster Projects, Italy (2018) and The Ricklungarden Museum, Sweden (2009). Azan Contemporary. Painting Residency,Portugal (2020). Laboral Centro de Arte / residency (2020-21) Selected solo exhibitions include: The Bridge, Galeria Arancha Osoro, Asturias, Spain (2021) EJE, Fundation Bruno Alonso, Santander, Spain (2018) Vascular, Turps Gallery, London (2017) Homeland, Galeria Arancha Osoro, Spain (2017). Caprichos, Galeria Angulo, Oviedo, Spain(2011) Hideaway, Contemporary Art Projects, London (2007) Centro Cultural Cajastur, Touring exhibition, Asturias, Spain (2007) Recent Paintings, Pump House Gallery, London (1999).

Clare Bowen grew up on the coast on Hayling Island, Hampshire and her main body of work is inspired by an ongoing draw of the sea. She has recently moved to Newlyn in Cornwall and has immersed herself in painting the Cornish coastline. Clare prefers to paint en plein air to capture the light and colours of the moment. She has exhibited with the Royal Institute of Oil Painters, the Royal Society of Marine Artists & the New English Art club as well as winning awards with The Artist Magazine and Royal Talens. Clare took part in the Sky Landscape Artist of the Year in 2019.

Chris is a Leeds born artist who started her formal training at Leeds College of Art gaining a distinction in Foundation studies before going on to achieve a BA Hons in Fine Art at Nottingham Trent and a Post Graduate Certificate in Education from Reading University. After a career in teaching she began painting full time in 2016. She paints from a Leeds City Centre studio which is also home to ‘Leeds Print Workshop’ from where she both produces her mono prints and teaches printmaking. Although not exclusively a portrait artist, the figure is a dominant subject of both her painting and printmaking. Her method of working is both traditional and contemporary. She loves to use her iPad for drawing and planning her paintings and prints. When transferring these ideas and observations to canvas she prefers the lusciousness of oils. Her style is economical so that only those things deemed essential are brought to the fore in the composition. Visit her website for contact details and for more information on forthcoming exhibitions.

In Charlotte’s gallery you will find watercolour landscapes, acrylic abstracts, oil paintings and more! Charlotte’s love for colour and the feelings of happiness and pure joy it can evoke shines through in her paintings. Born and bred in Leeds, Yorkshire, the local scenery and vivid pops of colour in nature have long inspired Charlotte’s work…bright, bold and beautiful. Charlotte is predominantly a self taught, mixed media artist. Her work has evolved through experimenting with different mediums and colour pallets, following intuition and refining techniques. All her paintings are created in her home studio in Leeds, you can see ‘behind the scenes’ and ‘work in progress’ pictures on her social media.

Embroidery artist Amy Davies focuses on creating beautiful tactile pieces of artwork. Based in Manchester with a BA degree in Interactive Arts, her artwork primarily focuses on exploring colour and texture. A self taught Embroiderist, Amy combines hand embroidery, bead work and paint to create unique, stunning pieces of wall art. Each piece is sewn completely by hand, with hours dedicated to creating these often abstract, tactile pieces. Her paintings often form a complimentary component to her embroidery, soft and calm, evoking a sense of meditative tranquility. Founding her own brand ‘Circle&Stitch’ in 2019. Amy has slowly built up a small business selling her artwork, along with drawings and jewellery. Artwork is currently for sale via her online Etsy store and her creative progress can be followed on her Instagram account. Commissions welcome.

Growing up on the edge of the Peak District National Park, combined with a period in Cornwall, has dealt Adam a lifetime of naturally inspiring landscapes to draw on. From the mizzly greys of the Cornish sea mist to the rusty reds of the Peaks' rugged outcrops, the moody swagger and weather-beaten character of both places run deep in Adam's paintings. Adam works primarily with oil paint, building up layers to form rich textures and balanced compositions. Adding mediums allows Adam to create multiple layers of glazes, giving each piece a unique depth and glow. Layers are rubbed away with instinctive spontaneity – either in part or sometimes entirely – until the desired atmosphere emerges. Never literal depictions of place, Adam’s work explores the landscapes that live on in memory – lending it an intriguing ambiguity. Always open to interpretation, his paintings create an elemental expanse for the viewer to lose themselves in.