Ian North trained at Avery Hill College from 1978 until 1981, attaining a B. ED. He then taught in Cornwall for a number of years, until 1992, when he decided to concentrate full time upon his artwork. Over the years North’s working practises have changed from working outside in front of the motif to a more studio based approach. He will make as many twenty drawings from a single encounter (a sustained study of the motif). These drawings are then paraphased and translated into a pictoral reincarnation without losing the structure or feeling of the original subect. These sketches nourish ideas, an intellectual and emotional response to the landscape. Spontaneity is very important in producing these sketches by capturing movement, shape, colour and pattern. North then arranges his painting palette around these studies, whilst breaking down the scenic elements to those that really matter and are expressive, eliminating purely representational elements. In his work from landscape, North is attempting to deal with the internal essence of the Earth rather than merely recording the surface, he is attempting to go beyond the obvious.