The Artist

About Liana

Liana De Sousa holding one of her paintings against a white wall — professional portrait

Styled desk with mini easel and painting — studio detail by Liana De Sousa

Glasgow, Scotland

A painter drawn to wild places

I am a self-taught oil painter based in Glasgow, Scotland. With a deep love of travel and the outdoors, my work is rooted in the experience of being present in the landscape — watching light change on stone, following a ridge into cloud, standing at the edge of something vast and quiet.

My paintings span the Scottish Highlands, the European Alps, the Canadian Rockies, and the Mediterranean coast — places I have visited and been moved by. I work primarily in oil on canvas, drawn to the medium's capacity for luminosity, depth, and texture. Each piece is built from multiple layers of transparent glazes and opaque impasto, seeking an atmosphere rather than a literal record.

I began painting seriously during the pandemic, turning the small rooms of lockdown into a studio, and finding in oil paint a way of returning to the wide open spaces I missed. What began as a private practice quickly grew into a community: my Instagram account, @liana_fine_art, has gathered hundreds of followers who follow along from sketch to finished piece.

I am currently based in Glasgow, painting in my home studio overlooking the city, and taking every opportunity to return to the mountains that inspire me most.

2020

Began painting

Oil

Primary medium

Glasgow

Based in

Influences & Practice

On painting outdoors
and from memory

My practice begins in the field — sketching, photographing, making colour notes in failing light. These moments of direct observation form the emotional core of every painting. Back in the studio, I work from this material to reconstruct not the scene itself but the feeling of being there.

My influences span the classical and contemporary: the tonal landscapes of John Constable, the atmospheric fog of Caspar David Friedrich, and the painterly looseness of modern realists working from life. I am equally drawn to the Scottish colourists — their ability to find drama in the grey light of the north.

I work primarily on small-to-medium canvas (20×20cm to 60×60cm), believing that intimacy of scale invites a different kind of looking — you lean in, you see the brush, you understand that a painting is made.