Hannah Rollings
Recognition
Hannah Rollings is a contemporary landscape artist based in the Surrey Hills, whose practice has evolved from illustration into an expressive and increasingly abstract approach to painting en plein air. She was awarded a fully funded Arts and Humanities Research Council scholarship for her PhD at Kingston University, completed in 2025, following earlier studies in Illustration & Animation and Sequential Design Illustration.
Hannah has exhibited internationally, including a residency and solo exhibition in Hong Kong, and a commissioned collection of ten works for Chartreuse in Paris, now held in their private collection. Recent exhibitions include Lido Contemporary, Canal Boat Contemporary, Silson Contemporary and John Martin Gallery, alongside representation by galleries and art agencies in the UK and overseas. In 2026, she was longlisted for the Jackson's Art Prize and selected as a finalist for the John Richardson Award.
Most recently, Hannah partnered with Bella + Ollie Art for an intimate collection preview and artist talk at Babington House in Somerset, where guests were invited to discover her plein air practice and experience the new collection in person.
Photos by Emily Hadley
Practice
Hannah works predominantly en plein air, painting directly within the landscape to reconnect with nature and respond to its changing light, movement and atmosphere. Her practice takes her from the Surrey Hills to landscapes further afield, with recent paintings made in Barbados, Normandy, Cornwall and along the River Thames. Rather than simply documenting each location, Hannah translates the sensory experience of being there into expressive contemporary landscape paintings through vivid colour, gestural mark-making and abstraction.
Each place offers a different visual and sensory experience, from the tropical palms and wetlands of Barbados to the coastal light of Cornwall and the reflective landscapes of northern France. Working quickly on location allows Hannah to capture fleeting changes in light, atmosphere and movement, while returning to the studio gives her space to reflect and push the paintings further. Across the collection, these locations become a starting point for exploring the energy and feeling of landscape rather than simply representing a particular view.
Visual Identity
Hannah’s distinctive visual identity is rooted in vivid colour, expressive mark-making and a painterly approach to abstraction. Her work combines a bold, Fauvist-inspired palette with impressionistic brushwork, impasto, pattern and gestural movement, creating contemporary landscape paintings that feel energetic and immersive. Rather than presenting the landscape as a fixed scene, Hannah captures the atmosphere and feeling of a place, allowing colour and movement to become as important as the landscape itself.
This sense of energy makes Hannah’s work particularly striking within an interior, where her paintings can bring colour, movement and a connection to nature into the home. From the vivid Caribbean palette of her Barbados paintings to the softer coastal tones of Cornwall and Normandy, each work offers a different way to introduce landscape into a space. For collectors looking for original contemporary art for their home, Hannah’s paintings offer both a strong visual presence and a sense of escape - inviting you to pause, look closer and reconnect with the natural world.
