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.

This was the largest oil painting I have produced, but we were all very pleased with the result. The painting was unveiled when the hotel reopened after refurbishment and can now be seen in the lounge.

The Finished Painting & Hotel Opening

For those wishing to know more about the main New Forest Ponies in the picture, they are all based very loosely on the following;

The main grey in the foreground, is based on Moonraker’s Mist owned by Luke Blomfield. She was the dam of the popular New Forest stallion Sway Mister Moon. Mister Moon sired one of our ponies, Brushwood Just Dandy.

The bay with the white blaze facing the grey under the tree, is based on Mallards Wood Goddess owned by Agister Robert Maton.

The relaxed chestnut behind, is based on Yewtree Slippaway (Briar). My dear old pony I was lucky enough to own for 17 years. We had many adventures together including racing in and winning the annual New Forest Boxing Day Point to Point.

The two ponies’ middle distance are Longmead Katie (Roan) and Longmead Holly (Bay). Two ponies that we owned and were running on the forest at the time of painting.