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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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A Celebration of Commoning
A Celebration of Commoning was painted to Commemorate 100 years of the New Forest Commoners Defence Association. It was sold by auction at the 2009 New Forest Show, with all proceeds going to the NFCDA. The central watercolour depicts a typical New Forest pony drift scene across South Weirs, Brockenhurst. It is surrounded by pencil sketches of local commoners and scenes depicting various aspects of commoning life. The top section represents the administrative bodies of commoning.Starting in the top left corner: Agisters of the past, Jesse Taylor, Charles Evemy, and Albert Evemy. The Verderers Court, overseeing the commoning community, then modern day faces, retired Head Agister, Brian Ingram, current Head…
