Jonathan Armigel Wade (born 1960) captures his homeland and its sporting life with affectionate humour, and a distinctive vision he calls ‘curvispective’ which makes every painting unmistakeably his own. He depicts fields and hills, woods and groves, people quietly strolling and riding, intimate family moments.

‘Curvispective’ refers to its low billowing hills and winding lanes, where horses hurtle over fences, hounds speed through fields, guns prepare for the partridge shoot.

Inspired by a French impressionist painter in his family, he always looks for a ’curve in the landscape’

He lives in the north of England, and a likeness of his own ‘vaguely’ 18th century house appears in many paintings. He is a country gentleman, doesn’t ride but since schooldays, always loved shooting. The scenes he captures could be riding to hounds or a long summer afternoon of cricket on the village green, hilarious beach picnics, swimming under a bright moon, leisurely rural rides at sunset. He finds joy in planting trees, creates orchards on his land from seeds, nuts and cuttings, nurtured by the warmth of his traditional cooking stove.

Jonathan Armigel Wade was born in Fort Belvoir, Virginia, America. He served in the army, following his officer father, from 1978 until 1991when he left military life to become a painter. He had no formal art training, but the finest English traditional education at school and university.

In his own words, describing the paintings, he says: ‘I am now using three word titles, as part of the work and I think very hard about it.’ They include : ‘Briefing the Guns’ and ‘The Loose Horse’ He makes most of his own frames, black with touches of red.

He calls his paintings ‘little excursions for the mind,’ attempting to analyse the creative process.

David Buckman, art historian, author of the dictionary ‘ ARTISTS IN BRITAIN SINCE 1945’ writes with rare perception.

‘For me, Jonathan Armigel Wade is the delightful ‘Master of the Unexpected’ With Wade, you can never be certain what he will do next; racing and military scenes, seascapes, quirky interiors, bizarre figure studies, landscapes and buildings that seem to dance, and so it goes on. Draughtsmanship excellent, the colours please, enigma and humour abound, injected with his unique ‘curvispective’ style.’

Jonathan explains: ‘ Many of my landscapes feature a medium-sized, vaguely 18th century house, a little like our house, but not too grand, or too extravagant, trying to be low key. It is just something very British, a nice house in rolling hills. When you include a particular element, one picture often leads to another. There was a wood I liked in one picture, and then I put one similar in another painting.

I love all the British countryside and I have a good memory for images. I have seen a cloud recently, with a dark horizon and a grey sky rising up. When you see something you scribble it down and then you need another idea that goes with it. Once you have had the idea, that is the main idea, and the rest is a slog.’