Dark Red Hippeastrums and Roman Bottle

Dark Red Hippeastrums

Watercolour
Approximately  35cm x 53cm
Mounted and framed in a lime washed oak frame
£650

I have had this hippeastrum  for  years and it faithfully flowers year after year.  It is just like the  dark red ones  we used for our son and daughter-in-law's wedding.  They looked wonderful in the church  with contored willow stems and we put white cyclamen, ivy and lots of candles on the windowsills. It was  December and there were 80 mph winds.


Roman Bottle with Vitis vinifera'Purpurea'

watercolour and traces of gold
approximately 32cm x 26cm
mounted in cream museum board in a gilded and greyish green moulding

£450

My father found this Roman bottle either in Libya or in Egypt in the early 50's. I have always loved   it.  It has  large chip out of the top, but otherwise is in good condition.  It is wonderful to think that something so fragile has lasted for perhaps 2000 years.

Two Little Piggies and Richard's Gloucester Old Spot

Two Little Piggies

Watercolour and  touches of white chalk
appoximately 27cm x 37cm

£750

at the framers now.

A friend Penny Johnson, a brilliant cook, fattens pigs every year and then I am afraid they are then enjoyed by others as roast pork and sausages.  These had just arrived when I went to draw them and were running about in their little paddock.  They had a happy life, albeit a short one.  A limited edition print run of 25 has been made of this image, which will be signed and numbered by me.





Richard's  Gloucester  Old Spot Sow

Watercolour and touches of white chalk

Approximately 36cm x 54cm

£750
At the framers

We stayed with friends in  Shropshire for my God daughter's wedding last September, and on the Sunday morning had a tour of his estate, including going to feed his pigs.  This sow had some quite grown up piglets and they all enjoyed the apples we gave them. The boar was a really ugly brute, and not very kind to the young ones either.


Dave and the Lily

Watercolour
approximately  53cm x 36cm
mounted in museum board and in a painted Farrow and Ball frame (Down Pipe and Green Smoke) with some gilding

£750

Dave, the Saudi Cat, has been living with us for the last three years and I am beginning to wonder if he is a fixed item.  He really belongs to our son, but he is happy snuggled up to the Aga and as long as he is warm and gets his three pouches a day, he is quite content.  Although he was  just a  stray in Riyadh he is very handsome and has a noble bearing. He is indeed a very lucky cat.

Pink and White Hippeastrums

Watercolour with touches of gouache and  pencil

Approximately 36cm x 46cm

Framed in a lime washed oak frame

£550

Just after Christmas in 2011, I noticed that Waitrose were selling these Hippeastrums at half price.  I bought two and this beautiful pink and white striped flowerhead emerged.  I have managed to keep it going and it is in flower again as I write.

A Camel in The Desert

A camel  in the Desert.

A watercolour  54cm x 36cm .   
Mounted in cream museum board with a washed grey and natural pine frame
£750

I was born in Libya, and although I cannot remember living there or our time in Egypt in the early 50's, I love camels and the beauty of the desert.  In the last ten years we have been fortunate to go to Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Jordan and Syria.  The Empty Quarter in Saudi Arabia is a beautiful yet quite forbidding area, we camped in a tiny part of it.

Walking in the Rain at Newgale

Walking in the Rain at Newgale

This landscape is in watercolour and pastel and measures approximately 26cm x 35cm
It is mounted in cream museum board with a washed grey and natural pine reverse frame.
It is priced at £480

It was a wet windy Sunday afternoon in early October and a walk on the beach seemed to be a good idea.  The tide was out but the sand was wet with the rain.  After I had photographed  this picture I added a little black dog to the couple.  It is the perfect place for taking the dogs for a walk.  Newgale Beach is almost three miles long.

Low Tide at Newgale Beach

Low Tide on Newgale Beach

This pastel landscape is in Pembrokeshire.
 It is approximately 33cm x 48cm
 mounted in cream museum board with a washed blue and natural pine reversed frame.
 £550

For the last 10 years or so, we have been renting a delightful house overlooking Newgale  and the sea.  The rocks beneath are majestic and when the sun glints on them, they literally glow.

Charles Martell's 'Dymock' Fruit

Gloucestershire Black Kidney Potatoes

Dymock fruit trees

 Back in 1997 I painted a Dymock pear, plum and apple for Charles Martell, who makes artisan cheese

 in Gloucestershire.  He has sourced old varieties of fruit trees and is doing his best to preserve as many as he can on his farm near Ledbury.  He now makes a perry liqueur out of the pears.  This morning I went to his home to deliver another painting he commissioned from me, of Gloucestershire Black Kidney potatoes.  They are almost purple in colour but sadly on opening them, they were creamy inside, not purple as I had expected.  He let me photo the old paintings.  The photos have not come out too badly considering they were in their frames and I had forgotten how to stop the flash from working on my camera.