There is something wonderfully English about sitting in a walled garden on an autumn morning, surrounded by flowers, old stone and the quiet hum of the countryside beyond. At Babington Soho House in Somerset, the air was cool and fresh, the sky softly overcast, and a breeze moved through the trees, sending leaves skittering across the grass as birds called somewhere beyond the garden walls.
I eventually found Hannah out in the grounds, sitting amongst the landscape she had come to paint. She was wearing a blue painting coat, with a small panel canvas propped up on a portable easel in front of her, while oil paints, acrylics and buttery oil sticks were scattered across the grass around her. She had been painting outside that morning, observing the movement of the trees, the changing light and the small details that are so easily missed when you are simply passing through a landscape.
It felt like the perfect place to meet artist Hannah Rollings.
Her paintings are made in much the same way: outside, in real landscapes, often working en plein air, responding to what is happening in front of her rather than trying to reproduce it exactly. Colour comes first, followed by layers of paint, marks, texture and memory. The result is a body of work that feels rooted in the landscape, but wonderfully free from the expectation that a landscape painting should simply look like the place it came from.
That evening, I sat with Hannah again in the cosy library at Babington House, where we hosted an intimate artist talk to celebrate the launch of her new collection with Bella + Ollie Art. The paintings we had spent the morning imagining in the landscape were now layered around us as Hannah talked about her artistic journey, her relationship with colour and what keeps drawing her back outside to paint.
I wanted to understand more about that process, and about the woman behind these colourful, expressive contemporary landscape paintings.
B: Hannah, tell me a little about yourself and how you came to painting.
H: My name is Hannah Rollings. I'm a painter, landscape painter. I work mostly plein air, outside, and I'm from the Farnham, Surrey area. I grew up in Bexhill-on-Sea in East Sussex, born in Hastings, so it's a really creative town and area, and amazing to be by the sea as well.
I've always drawn outside. When I studied illustration at university, we did lots of reportage drawing, so I was going out on trips and drawing outside. Part of my PhD was about connecting with trees and landscape, looking specifically at children's books, so I was drawing my children outside in the landscape as well.
Then I think COVID changed things. We were going on walks together, painting and drawing together as a family, and I started to focus more on the landscape and involve myself in it a lot more. I became more connected to it by getting bigger, working with different colour, and colour really took over. Then there were trips and painting trips as well, and gradually the work just evolved from there.
B: Your paintings are incredibly colourful. What does colour mean to you?
H: I think colour is very emotive; your senses get spiked. I don't know, it's kind of, you feel the colour. I think colour is what I feel first before anything else.
I'm always looking at what colours could work, or a mood or an atmosphere. That's my interest, really. Colour is the first thing for me, and then it's the detail and the working into it. But colour is the main thing.
There is a real sense of instinct in the way Hannah talks about colour. It isn't something she adds afterwards to make a landscape more vibrant; it is often the first thing she responds to, a feeling before a finished image has even begun to emerge.
That becomes particularly apparent when you look at the way she paints outside.
B: What makes you stop in a landscape and think, I want to paint this?
H: When I'm walking around, I'm always looking and searching for different viewpoints, or quirky trees or strange things. I think it's just that feeling of having the time as well.
You're giving yourself permission, really, to stay there and be in nature and have that time to paint and to work through a scene, because we're so sort of rushing around, aren't we? And just to switch - well, you're not switching off, you're switching in, I think, is the kind of thing.
You're focussing in and you're noticing things that you wouldn't otherwise. Things like the light changing, or the textures of one plant as opposed to another. There's just so much, it's just endless, really, and there's so much to explore and enjoy.
I think it's well-being as well for me. Although it's hard and exhausting and sometimes you think, God, what am I doing? when you're painting and you're trying to work through a painting, you're taking risks and trying to go down a wrong path and then get somewhere with it. It's not about creating a representation, I think it's about connecting with it.
It's not a photograph, so you're not trying to capture everything. You're maybe just taking one element and exaggerating it or playing with it.
B: You mentioned France as being particularly inspiring. Is there a sense of memory attached to the places you paint?
H: The painting that I created in the Eure Valley in Normandy was kind of about loosening up. I kept a lot of the linen, a lot of the ground in, which is a completely different thing for me, so it's actually a bit of a departure.
But in terms of a space and a place having memories and connecting with you long after, I think I always come back to France because of family holidays and things. I think it's a very painterly place, and you've got all of those painters and Impressionists that are so inspiring, kind of breaking up the painting with a brushstroke. I think that's really invigorating and inspiring for me.
We were travelling around and went to Monet's garden, which was really inspiring, and I was painting by this pond and my children were fishing. There was a lovely atmosphere, a barbecue going on, they bought me my food to eat by the pond, and all of that kind of goes into the painting, I think, where you're with a place for that length of time.
This is something I find particularly interesting about Hannah's work: the places in her paintings are real, but the memories within them are personal.
A landscape can hold far more than what is physically there. It can hold a childhood holiday, the feeling of being somewhere unfamiliar, the particular quality of light on a summer afternoon, or simply the people you happened to be with when you were there.
That is where Hannah's expressive landscape paintings begin to move beyond representation. They become about memory as much as place.
B: Do you think we connect differently with a landscape when we know it compared with when we discover it for the first time?
H: I do keep coming back to the same landscapes, but I think you see something different each time, which is really nice. The seasons change things, you know, you might, a tree might fall, or there's always something changing.
Some of the paintings from Barbados, that light just hits you. The weather and the full-on kind of UV is quite stark, but also really beautiful, and that's very impactful, I think, and translates onto the painting.
B: What does painting give you that nothing else does?
H: It's a bit like a muscle for me that I have to, or an itch that I have to scratch. It's something that physically I have to do. It's part of me.
I can't really see myself without it. I don't know any different, I suppose, because I've always been drawing. I don't know any other way of being.
It's a way of expressing myself, and I think for me it's a kind of meditative thing, to take the time for myself rather than not connecting with making work. Obviously I've had periods where I've not made much work and it makes me feel more drained.
So it's a way of getting some energy and getting things out.
Hannah's collection with Bella + Ollie Art moves between these very different landscapes: the intense light of Barbados, the familiar and painterly landscapes of Normandy and the distinctive atmosphere of Cornwall.
Yet there is a consistency running through them. They are all places that Hannah has spent time looking at rather than simply passing through, and each painting carries something of that experience with it.
B: And what are you trying to express that you feel words can't?
H: Everything I'm not, I suppose. I'm not a wordsmith, or very good with the words in general.
For me, it's about a feeling an emotion and colour, it's like I can be as crazy as I want to be, really.
B: If your paintings had a personality, how would you describe them?
H: With the colour, they'd be quite brash and bold- quite out there. But then I think there's an element of intrigue and subtlety that hopefully comes through as you work through the painting and you look that bit longer.
I'm quite shy, an observant person, not the person that wants to be in the centre of attention. But I suppose the paintings are the opposite of me- they are pops of colour that leave a mark.
That tension between boldness and subtlety is something you feel when looking at Hannah's paintings in person. The colour catches you first, but it is the layers and marks underneath that encourage you to stay with them.
Hannah works into her paintings repeatedly, building up different scales of brushwork, mediums and marks, so that what initially feels energetic begins to reveal quieter details the longer you look.
B: What would you want someone to feel when they live with one of your paintings?
H: I hope that every day, you see something different. There's an element of wow factor that you want, isn't there? But I hope they kind of reveal more as time goes on. You get to know it and look for those subtleties. Because I work in layers, it kind of builds up. There are elements where you can see different layers of different paint and different scale of brush and marks.
I think people enjoy the colour and that it reminds them of a place that they've been, or maybe it's a bit otherworldly, a bit of an escapism for them.
They do become quite social, don't they, paintings? They become centre points where people get together and talk about them.
B: You don't like starting with a white canvas. Why?
H: I generally don't like a white canvas. It just feels quite alien in the landscape. If you've already got a colour on, it can kind of blend in.
It also means I've already made one decision. I've done something, so I've just got to carry on. Otherwise, you could spend forever at that first hurdle thinking, What colour should I do? What do I do? And that can stop you from making all those other decisions.
B: I love what you said about the painting already being started.
H: Yeah, you're just adding, aren't you? You're having a conversation. It's already started.
It feels like an oddly perfect description of Hannah's process.
By the time she arrives in a landscape, the painting has already begun. The coloured ground has been prepared, the materials chosen, and the first decision has already been made. From there, she can respond to what is actually in front of her rather than getting caught at that intimidating first mark.
And perhaps that is also what makes plein air painting so central to her work. The landscape itself becomes part of the conversation.
The light changes. The weather shifts. The plants move. The painting changes with it.
Hannah Rollings x Bella + Ollie Art
What stayed with me from that morning at Babington House is the contrast between the peacefulness of the landscape and the energy within Hannah's paintings. Years of drawing, research and painting directly from nature have given her a distinctive visual language - one where colour is instinctive, brushwork is expressive, and a landscape becomes less about how a place looks and more about how it feels to be there. Her paintings have an immediate presence, but they aren't exhausted by that first impression. The longer you look, the more they reveal: a particular mark, a shift in colour, a memory or perhaps somewhere that feels strangely familiar.
Hannah's new collection with Bella + Ollie Art brings together original paintings from Barbados, Cornwall and Normandy, each rooted in a real landscape but transformed through her relationship with colour, memory and place.
For me, this is what makes her work so exciting to collect: they give you something immediately, but leave space for the painting to become personal. So when you look at Hannah's work, ask yourself: where does this painting take you? Does a colour bring back somewhere you've travelled, a particular summer, or a landscape you've always felt connected to?
Hannah begins the story in the landscape and you get to continue it.
Frequently asked questions
Where can I buy original expressive landscape art online?
You can explore and buy original expressive landscape paintings online through Bella + Ollie Art. Our collection includes one-of-a-kind contemporary landscape artworks by artists such as Hannah Rollings, available to view online with artwork details and pricing.
What makes Hannah Rollings' landscape paintings different?
Hannah Rollings is a contemporary landscape artist and plein air painter who works directly from the landscape. Her expressive paintings combine bold colour, energetic brushwork and layered marks to capture the feeling and atmosphere of a place rather than simply reproducing what it looks like.
Can I buy original tropical or Caribbean landscape paintings?
Yes. Hannah Rollings' collection includes colourful original paintings inspired by the tropical landscapes and intense light of Barbados. These expressive tropical artworks bring a sense of colour, warmth and escapism to an interior.
Does Bella + Ollie Art sell original Cornwall landscape paintings?
Yes. Hannah Rollings' collection includes original landscape paintings inspired by Cornwall, alongside works from Barbados and Normandy. Each painting responds to the character, light and atmosphere of the landscape through Hannah's distinctive use of colour.
How do I choose an original contemporary landscape painting for my home?
Start with the painting you keep coming back to. Consider the colours, atmosphere and memories it evokes, as well as how it will sit within your space. An original landscape painting should feel personal - something you connect with now, but can continue discovering as you live with it.
Inside the Artists Studio
Inside the Studio: Hannah Rollings - Contemporary Landscape Artist & Plein Air Painter
Step outside into the world of Hannah Rollings, a contemporary landscape artist whose colourful, expressive paintings are created en plein air. From Barbados to Normandy and Cornwall, discover how Hannah...
Inside the Studio: Hannah Rollings - Contemporary Landscape Artist & Plein Air Painter
Inside the Studio: Hannah Rollings - Contemporary Landscape Artist & Plein Air Painter
|Isabella Sheppard
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