COLIN BURNS | Autumn Sunshine, Hanford, Norfolk
Signed 'Colin Burns' (lower left)
Oil on Canvas
46 x 61 cms / 18 x 24 inches
Autumn Sunshine, Hanford, Norfolk presents a wooded track receding into dense autumn cover, its rutted surface catching light between banks of scrub and leafless trees. Here pheasants punctuate the foreground and middle distance, some grounded and others lifting into flight. Burns' palette is restrained, built using muted greens, browns and greys, with warmer notes concentrated in the undergrowth and birds.
Colin Burns is known for his engagement with the East Anglian landscape, particularly woodland and farmland in Norfolk. Working directly from observation, Burns developed a practice attentive to the seasons, local wildlife and familiar walking routes. This painting reflects that, combining landscape and sporting in a way that aligns Burns with British naturalist painters.
Colin Burns was born in St Olaves, on the broads on the Norkolk-Suffolk border, in 1944. From before the age of 10, Burns was already recognised as a future talent, despite the fact that he was largely left taught. His crucial formative influence came in 1957, when his parents moved to the marshland in isolated central Norfolk, at which point his passion for painting turned decisively towards his local subject matter. In his later teens, he left his secondary school and gained his accountant’s qualifications, beginning a professional career in Great Yarmouth.
Despite his day-job, Burns continued to paint and saw success with an enthusiastic local market. By his early thirties he felt confident enough to approach the Tryon Gallery in London, who immediately supported him with his first show in 1977: Burns left his job within the year. By the 1980s he was renowned as a leading painter of East Anglia, and in particular for his depiction of the area’s birds in their natural environs.
Burns continues to live in Ludham, Norfolk. he was a leading figure in the Great Yarmouth Society of Artists, leading the group as chairman from 1982 to 1994. He also works closely with the Norfolk Wildlife Trust, and for nearly half a century has produced their Christmas Card.
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