Painting Gallery
Recently finished paintings & the stories behind them.
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Ponies Shading in a New Forest Copse
On Wootton Heath, very near to our own horse’s field, there is a small oak and holly copse. The copse has always been a popular haunt for the New Forest ponies and cattle, as it provides shade from the heat and flies in the summer, shelter and valuable forage in the winter. The hollies are often cut by the Forestry Commission during the winter to provide a source of food for the commoners ponies. I was working from some reference photos that I had taken the previous year, but you must take into account that the contrast will always seem higher in photographs compared to real life. Pastels were used…
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A New Forest Cattle Drive
Back in October 2018 I was asked by a commoner friend if he could commission an unusual oil painting. He has a large herd of cattle which run on the New Forest that had to come in for TB testing. This meant driving the cattle back to his farm across the open forest with horses. I leapt at the chance, although cattle drifts are not uncommon, it is very rare to see quite so many cattle being driven across open forest and to have advanced knowledge of the route was a great opportunity for a painting which really couldn’t be missed Photos of the drive The view was to be…
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Rutting Fallow Bucks
In 2016 I received a commission from a New Forest Keeper for an oil painting of rutting fallow bucks. Getting up very early one morning to try and film scenes of the annual fallow rut in his quiet corner of the forest with his video recorder, he was especially thrilled to have successfully captured the scene with a rare white buck. He asked for the painting to be set in the exact spot where he had witnessed the rut taking place. I took a selection of stills from the videos and put together an autumn scene incorporating most of the large herd, including the many males that had gathered there.…
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The White Horse Hotel Romsey
In 2007 I was asked to produce a large “Stubbs” style oil painting for the main reception room of the refurbished White Horse Hotel in Romsey. I was asked for a gentle New Forest scene featuring a grey forest mare in the foreground with an oak tree and typical forest background. The view is from the Wilverley end of Longslade near Sway, with Hinchelsea woods in the distance on the left. In reality there is no Oaktree growing here, so I added this one using artistic license. This hopefully makes for a more aesthetically pleasing picture, fitting the brief, and giving the three ponies in the foreground somewhere to shade.…
