Melvyn Evans

Melvyn Evans has been a professional artist, printmaker and illustrator since 1992 with work being widely exhibited including at the Royal Academy, Royal College of Art and Somerset House.

Evans is fascinated by connections between rural traditions and our connections to the British landscape. There is a sense of prehistory in old place names and early monuments. Most of Melvyn's works are about the exploration of this sense of place. His bold lino-cut prints and paintings, feature seascapes and landscapes. Melvyn takes inspiration from the ancient natural elements of the British landscape specifically the Hitchen Stone boundary between Yorkshire and Lancashire.

A series of works including Stone Forest (2019) and Lost Land With Boat Form (2020) reimagine the fossilised ruins of a vast submerged area called Doggerland, where in around 6,500BC, rising sea levels flooded the area which originally connected Britain to continental Europe. Remnants can still be seen today at low tide in some areas particularly at Redcar beach.

If there’s one thing the work of Melvyn Evans conveys it’s his love for the British countryside. In both the representation of land and the sea, through a considered use of colour and shape, his paintings and lino prints embody a historic sense of place. They explore the bonds that exist between human endeavour and the landscape as a dramatic, natural backdrop.