How do I express how a landscape feels if I’ve never been there?

When I paint landscapes, I really want to show people how the landscape FEELS – both as a sensory experience and as an emotional experience.

The new commission I’m working is to be inspired by a landscape I’ve never been to though. How do I express how a landscape feels if I’ve never been there???

So I’ve been researching the landscape and drawing on the work of other creatives… looking at photographs of the colours, shapes, patterns, and textures of the natural landscape, and reading poetry, song lyrics, and other words that have been written about this landscape so that I can imagine how it feels.

I even asked ChatGPT what this natural landscape sounds, smells, and tastes like!
And of course, most importantly, I’ve asked my Collectors how it feels for them. Because it’s that essence of what they love about how the landscape feels for them that’s most important for me to understand and capture.

I’ll be printing and posting collages of images and words and poetry up on my studio wall to help me as I feel my way forward with this painting.