About

Background

Born in 1973, Oliver Akers Douglas is an artist best known for his dramatic interpretations of the British landscape - a reputation that has made him one of the most collectable living artists working today.

Oliver’s paintings are bold, distinctive and vividly convey the idea of place. He spends a great deal of time searching for the scenes that convey a dynamism and beauty that appeal to him. His work is rooted in direct experience and is predominantly executed en plein aire. In a short film available to see above, you can see his practice of working from a Land Rover with an easel welded to the side.

Many of the pictures painted in this way depict the chalk downland near to his home in south Wiltshire with its steep-sided valleys and billowing cloudscapes. However, Oliver often travels further afield to the wilder coasts of west Scotland and Connemara to search for painting locations - particularly to Iona in the Hebrides with its white sands and iridescent waters. Increasingly, in recent years, Oliver has also painted in the Swiss Alps where he hikes and skis to painting locations. Wherever his work is conducted it is more than mere depiction - his response to landscape is emotionally driven and charged with a strong Romantic spirit.

His paintings are unapologetically colourist, the paint dynamic and textured in effect. Using both brushes and palette knives, his mark-making is distinctively his, the surface of the pictures being themselves enticing landscapes of pure pigment.

While briefly attending Camberwell Art College, Oliver is largely self taught as an artist. He graduated in 1997 with a first class degree in English Literature from Edinburgh University, initially working as a journalist and writer before settling as an artist. Since then he has had several one man shows in London, his work being followed by a loyal audience, and found in both public and private collections worldwide. He has also worked extensively as a commissioned landscape artist, most notably for HM Charles III who he has accompanied on a Royal tour to the Balkans in 2017.

Selected Press & Bibliography

• House and Garden Magazine, December 2020 ︎
  
  
• Artists and Illustrators Magazine, November 2020 ︎
  
  
• Town and Country, Country Life, November 2020 ︎
  
  
• The Field, November 2020 ︎
  
  
• Klosters Zeitung, April 2019 ︎
  
  
• Pratique des Arts, August 2018 ︎
  
  
• House and Garden, September 2016, Beside the Seaside ︎
  
  
• House and Garden, August 2016, In the studio with Oliver Akers-Douglas ︎
  
  
• Pratique des Arts-Special, September 2016,
  ‘Les paysages expressionnistes’ ︎


• Jackson Art, February 2014, ‘The Urgency of Painting Out of Doors’ ︎
  
  
• Country Life, June 2012, My Week, editorial. ︎
  
  
• How To Spend It Magazine, April 2012, Finders Keepers, Emerging British Painters, editorial ︎
  
  
• Wiltshire Life, Broken English Weather July 2010, Rebecca Perl
  
  
• OEA Review 2010, Beyond the Drawing Schools, Rebecca Perl
  
  
• Country Life, March 2009, The Bigger Picture, editorial
  
  
• Royal Academy Gallery notes 2008, Gus Cummins
  
  
• The Field, Out and About, November 2007, editorial
  
  
• Country Life, May 2007, Plein Aire Painters, Mary Miers
  
  
• House And Garden, June 2003, Looking Forward, Matthew Dennison
  
  
• Blueprint Magazine, June 2003, Shows, editorial

Links

• portlandgallery.com
• josieeastwood.com
• michaelharding.co.uk
• wincanton-print.com
• pictureframes.co.uk
• markmatcham.co.uk

Selected Shows

2022
And then its gone..., Gallery 8, London

2020
LAND SEA SKY, lockdown online only

2020
Paintings of Klosters, Messums Wiltshire

2019
Art London, Islington

2018
Recent Work, Portland Gallery, London

2017
Art London, Islington

2016
Recent Work, Portland Gallery, London

2015
Art London, Islington

2014
Recent Work, Portland Gallery, London

2012
Recent Work, Portland Gallery, London

2010
Art London, Chelsea Hospital

2009
One-man show, Air Gallery
New work by Old Etonians

2008
Summer Exhibition, Royal Academy

2007
One-man show Air Gallery

2006
Josie Eastwood - Group show

2005
Hunting Prize selection
Josie Eastwood - Group show

2004
Josie Eastwood - May show
Air Gallery - Solo exhibition
Royal Society of Portrait Painters

2003
Josie Eastwood - May show
Coningsby Gallery- Solo exhibition