Natural selection

Andrew Lambirth meets the artist John Hubbard, whose work is concerned with atmosphere and the spirit of place

John Hubbard makes paintings about landscape which draw upon his early training in America and the influence of the Abstract Expressionists. But his pictures are far from abstract images: they are about the play of light through foliage or the surface of rock seen close to. They are concerned with atmosphere and the spirit of place — with earth, air, light and sometimes water interacting. He denies that these are aerial views, asserting that his paintings try to capture the experience of being in the landscape, rather than looking down upon it, and being in it over a period of time. ‘I came to prefer an image that reveals itself gradually, by stages,’ he says, ‘like so much of nature.’

Hubbard was born in 1931 in Ridgefield, Connecticut, took his BA in English at Harvard in 1953, was based in Japan for his military service (1953–6), then studied for a couple of years at the Art Students’ League in New York. His move from a general arts background to a career in painting was encouraged by working with Hans Hofmann at his legendary Provincetown summer school, even though (or perhaps because) Hofmann was highly critical of Hubbard’s efforts. At that time de Kooning was Hubbard’s hero, but in New York landscape was not thought a fit subject for painting. So in 1958 Hubbard moved to Rome and based himself there, painting still-life and street markets for the next two years, and travelling in Europe. Landscape painting began at last to seem a possibility.

In 1960 he moved to England, marrying and settling in Dorset the following year. His work at this point was still very experimental, and the small de Staël-influenced landscapes he had made in the south of France seemed quite inappropriate to his new life.