Imagination is not an escape from reality but another way of understanding it. And some of the places that shape us most deeply are the ones that live quietly in our minds.

Colour is the language of this world for me. It carries emotion before words ever can. It shapes light, creates atmosphere and gives each landscape its own personality. Every painting begins with colour, because colour has the power to change how we feel long before we understand why.

My landscapes are imagined, but the emotions are real. Trees, skies, hills and distant horizons become familiar characters that appear again and again, each one helping to build a world that grows with every painting.

My practice is guided by a few simple beliefs.

• Imagination has its own frequency, and colour helps us tune into it.

• Colour can change the way we feel

• Wonder needs tenderness to cultivate

Imagination, colour and wonder are the three ingredients I seek to share in every landscape. Every painting is another place within the Land of Colour.

Some are quiet places. Some feel hopeful. Some carry a sense of mystery or anticipation. Together they invite you to pause, look a little longer and discover your own story within them.

This is not simply a collection of paintings. It is an invitation to step into the Land of Colour.

ARTIST STATEMENT

I’m drawn to imagined places within already fictional worlds: the background paintings within domestic interiors of animated sitcoms, cinematic backdrops, and invented terrains that feel instantly familiar. These are landscapes twice removed from reality, yet quietly believable. We accept them without question, allowing them to shape emotion and narrative from the margins. My paintings operate in the same way.

They are less a depiction than an environment - psychological spaces shaped by a hyper-stimulated media landscape, and orchestrated as scenes for escapism. 

Influenced by the lyrical colour of Brian Cook, Nicolas Party, the compositional restraint of Algernon Newton, and the idealised terrains of Family Guy and The Simpsons, I use bold colours and simplified forms. There is an intentional tension: surfaces that appear light or playful, yet carry a quiet emotional weight beneath. Think Hockney reimagined by Stewie Griffin: colourful, simplified, yet an emotional escape. These works offer a
layered reading - superficially light, but grounded in quiet seriousness.

My process is intuitive but measured. Flatness and depth coexist, allowing colour to act not just visually, but emotionally. I
strive to hold true the purity of the pigments, retain the highest levels of
chroma and steer away when possible from their dilution.

My works sit between the artificial and the internal. They offer a superficially light reading but create psychological environments that invite
curiosity, innocence, otherness, and reflection.

AWARDS

• Jacksons Art Prize 2026 - Longlisted

SHOWS AND EXHIBITIONS

• Form Gallery, Nailsworth, England – from September 2021
• Sherston Arts Festival, Sherston, England – November 2021
• The Pound Arts Open Exhibition, Corsham, England – December 2021
• John Bowen Gallery, Malmesbury – March/April 2022
• Caerbladen Gallery, Malmesbury – August 2022
• Spencer Gallery, Tetbury – September 2022
• Caerbladen Gallery, Malmesbury – March 2023

ABOUT JAVIER GARCIA

Before adopting painting as my prefered medium of expression I spent more than twenty-five years working as a Creative Director and brand strategist, helping organisations communicate complex ideas through design, colour and visual storytelling.

That experience taught me that colour is never simply decorative. It influences how we think, what we remember and how we feel. It also taught me the value of simplicity,removing distraction until only the essential remains.

Those same principles now shape my painting.

The graphic forms, balanced compositions and carefully considered use of colour found throughout the Land of Colour all have their roots in my design background. Painting has become a way to take those ideas beyond communication and into imagination, creating places where colour itself becomes the story.

Today my practice brings together two lifelong interests: understanding the psychology of colour and exploring its power to shape emotion, memory and wonder.