Selected for the Jackson's Art Prize Extended Longlist - Behind the Painting

High Hill, Oil on canvas, 100 x 120cm by Clara Wilkinson 2026

I'm delighted that my landscape painting - an oil on canvas - has been selected for the Extended Longlist of the Jackson's Art Prize 2026 - an international competition celebrating painting.

My painting High Hill is a large oil on canvas created in my studio on the South Downs and inspired by a hill in Exmoor, Somerset that I have know since childhood. I used sketches and images taken from long walks on the moors pinning them up around me. The painting evolved over a number of months in early 2026 and I built up the layers and paint strokes gradually.

I submitted this painting to Jacksons' Art Prize as it marks a more expressionist representational style of landscape painting that I have recently begun to paint more consistently.

Along with Cliffs Over Bossington 2024 and Summer on Exmoor 2025 - this painting is a slight departure from the purely abstract landscapes I have been concerned with over recent years. Colour, form and the relationship between thicker impasto paint, washier translucency and mark making all remain.

This piece I think demonstrates my understanding of colour, structure and expression using oil paint as my chosen medium.