Artist of the day: Artist of the Day, October 24, 2022: Fred Ingrams, a British painter (#1681)

Fred Ingrams (1964) studied at Camberwell and later expelled from St. Martins School of Art.
For ten years he painted above the Coach & Horses pub in Soho, whilst exhibiting in various central London galleries.

He has worked as a graphic designer and art director on many magazines including: Sunday Times, The Field, Tatler, Vogue and House & Garden. In 1998 he moved to Norfolk where he lives with his wife and too many children. He now devides his time painting in the Fens and The Flow Country.

The Flow Country is roughly 1500 square miles of blanket bog that straddles Sutherland and Caithness in the far north east of Scotland. It is roughly the same size as the Fens and is also a landscape created by peat and water. The similarities however end there. Unlike the Fens it is almost untouched by man and has slowly evolved over the last 10,000 years since the last ice age. Of course people have lived there in small pockets on the edges of this wilderness for centuries but most where driven out in the late eighteenth century highland clearances. Today almost all of the Flow Country is uninhabited which given that the population of England and Scotland is over 60 million makes it very special. It is special in another way as it is also the largest blanket bog in Europe and our largest carbon capture. It is estimated the Flow Country holds 400 million tonnes of carbon. All the woodland and forestry in the UK only holds 150 million tonnes. As we become more aware of global warming we have also become more aware of just how precious peatlands are both for helping with climate change and for their unique wildlife, plants and mosses.

It was not these facts and new found importance that brought me to want to paint here. I was first introduced to this extraordinary landscape by an old friend, Simon Upton who apart from being a successful interiors photographer is also a passionate stalker and falconer who has been going to Caithness all his life as his father has before him. I was immediately awestruck by the beauty and vastness of the landscape and knew at once that I wanted to paint here. This landscape is intimidating in its grandeur and isolation and visually so totally different to the Fens. There were no straight lines, no roads, no ditches, no telegraph poles - no vanishing points! It has taken many visits to finally pluck up the courage to try and capture this land in paint. I have always loved the east coast of Scotland as my grandmother was from Aberdeenshire and I have spent many summer holidays there not far from the village where Joan Eardly lived and painted. The east coast of Scotland unlike the west coast is relatively flat and this is particularly true of Caithness. Once you pass Scarabens, Morven and Maiden Pap the land is totally flat, watery and forgotten. As a result after years of painting in the Fens I feel totally at home when I paint here.

It is a landscape of stags and eagles. It is a wild place that you feel is timeless and at times truly sublime. I have heard so many people describe the country they live in as God’s country. What they look at though is a country that has been created by man. The Flow Country is the one place I know that can truly claim to be God’s country.

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