Laura Middleton explores the interplay between reflection, abstraction, and nature. For her, water serves as both subject and metaphor. Her paintings invite viewers to engage with different layers of reality. These range from the reflections on the surface, the sky above, and the riverbed below.

Laura Middleton creates scenes which reflect how she experiences the world. This is, not just through observation, but filtered through her emotions and inner landscapes.

A quest for healthy rivers

For Laura Middleton’s most recent body of work she has focused on the beauty and ecological restoration of a stretch of one of the UK’s rare and unique chalk streams.

“I’ve been painting rivers for the past 5 or 6 years with a growing interest in river health. Initially this was because I was swimming in the Thames at Eynsham in Oxfordshire and it became increasingly apparent that our local rivers are in a poor state.
However, I want to paint healthy rivers and show what’s possible with care and investment. So, I got in touch with Dr Claire Robertson at the charity Thames21 asking if there were any rivers in Oxfordshire in ‘good’ health finding that sadly there are very few. 

Observing successful river restoration

However one proved to be an especially good example. “I began painting the rivers Glyme and Dorn which are close to where I live and seemed to me to be beautiful and clean stretches of river. I wondered why that was. I discovered that they have been greatly improved by work carried out by the Evenlode Catchment Partnership and Blenheim estate. The Evenlode catchment partnership have worked with the estate to improve the health of the rivers – woodland planting, creating natural dams to slow the flow and create areas that flood and working with local farmers. Very importantly phosphorus stripping technology was installed at the local water treatment plant and this has worked very effectively. Blenheim being a UNESCO World Heritage site could of course afford to have this done but I do wonder why this isn’t something that is routinely done by our water companies.  Work on these rivers represents what our waterways can become with care and stewardship. It expresses a hopeful vision of nature.”

Painting Oxfordshire chalk streams

Claire at Thames21 also suggested that Laura Middleton should visit Letcombe Brook near Wantage which is one of several chalk streams in Oxfordshire. It is under threat from development, over extraction, pollution and climate change.

As Laura says: “but despite this the brook is amazing and has a wonderful feel to it. After visiting a few times I decided to paint a series of paintings of the stream. 
The stream is looked after by a group of citizen scientists who monitor and care for it – The Letcombe Brook Project. It’s a hugely important and unique habitat.” 

Concern for environmental balance

Laura Middleton aims to show that her love and concern for environmental balance comes through in these works, which are meditations on purity, reflection, and hope. They hopefully serve as a reminder to people of what a healthy waterway is.

“I’m inspired by artists who communicate a sense of a world that is larger and more complex than what we perceive.My paintings are a dialogue between my external surroundings and my inner, often chaotic self. Though I can be full of contradictions, my art tends to evoke calm and clarity, perhaps reflecting my subconscious pull toward peace. I am fascinated by the convergence of multiple planes on a single surface, capturing moments that are both serene and visually complex.
Painting allows me to access that “other”. To reach beyond the visible, and capture an essence of being open to something greater than we can fully understand.”

A rural Oxfordshire studio

Laura Middleton works from a studio in Wilcote in rural Oxfordshire where there is a group of artists who are all very strongly motivated by the environment, which is reflected in their work. They exhibit collectively in a gallery space at Wilcote Arts a few times a year as well as yearly in a second space – The Drawing Room, @thedrawingroom_wilcote where they hold more research based exhibitions.