Neil is a landscape artist living in Leeds. He first started painting in his early twenties, dividing his creative time between art and writing. He wrote freelance science articles for several national newspapers and dabbled with writing fiction. When triplets came along, all creative endeavours came to an end. Once the triplets were older, Neil picked up from where he had left off, and ten years ago, published a novel about a boy entranced with the first moon landing entitled One Time on Earth. Throughout this time though, the pull of painting never left him and, wanting a break from the long-distance discipline of novel writing, he returned to his brushes and has since never looked back. Neil works in oil and acrylics, sometimes combining the two. Many of his paintings are inspired by hikes in the Yorkshire Dales, The Lake District and North Yorkshire Moors. Neil says, “I love a landscape. When out hiking, I am always wondering what the world looks like from that hill, or from that outcrop, or what do those trees look like up close. I love the way landscapes convey emotions – a summer’s day can convey a sense of tranquillity, whereas with rolling moorland beneath stormy skies a sense of dread can take root. With my paintings I try to summon that sense of contemplation, that sense of loneliness and isolation as we try to understand our place in the Universe.”