My brother JR Ewen’s paintings are inspired by his travels and affinity to some special places: Zillertal in Austria, where is wife is from; Shetland, his childhood home; together with Italy and Slovenia. These places have blended together to become an imaginary land of mountains and seascapes called Zillerholm. JR’s body of ZIllerholm inspired work includes beautiful maps with mountain ranges, beaches and villages. Check out this website here:  zillerholm

JR’s approach is to spent a lot of time outside observing, sketching and painting before creating from his imagination. His works are made quickly and intuitively. JR describes his best work as coming from a feeling of becoming saturated with a place and then trusting his intuition to create a landscape with the mood and atmosphere of Zillerholm.

This collection of four paintings were given as Christmas presents to me, my sister and father. The two below are very much inspired by Shetland where JR and me grew up. The first is of Saxaford in Unst and the second of St Magnus Bay, from the little island of Muckle Roe. For those readers familiar with Shetland, you’ll recognise the sea stacks in the centre – Da Drongs. These paintings are some of my favourites. They capture the brooding weather, beautiful light and expansive spaces of Shetland.

If you would like to get in touch with JR here’s his email: jrewen@gmail.com.

Here’s a collection of some of his other Zillerholm ink drawings.