It was with some trepidation that I agreed to meet up with eminent Roman historian Professor Peter Salway and Dr. Rupert Goulding (National Trust curator at the Sherborne Park Estate), both consultants to the improvements on the site, along with Jane Lewis, the learning officer at the Villa. I had already bought a wonderful book I’d found on the internet ‘The Splendor of Roman Wall Painting’ by Umberto Pappalardo so I had done some homework, but the meeting was a steep learning curve. However they were all very encouraging and the exchange of ideas was stimulating, not to say a bit mind-boggling! I knew at this point that I had my work cut out.

Examples of actual Roman wall painting:

Unlike my preconceptions the Romans loved bright colour and bling. Never mind less is more, they loved reds and golds, intricate borders, mixtures of styles, fake marbled panels, friezes and painted scenes from ceiling to floor. I could see the styles and colour schemes in the houses of Pompeii from my book, but how was I to translate these as relevant to Chedworth, and how to do it in the time allotted?

When I arrived the room had no doors windows or heating, but the wall was as shown above, divided into three by two timber supports. After consultation we decided to have three central panels surrounded by borders, edged by columns, a dado rail below and a frieze along the top. The left hand panel would depict a hunter returning with his catch, the central panel would show the Chi-rho, a Christian symbol found at the Villa and the right hand panel would be a painting of the Villa itself. My mock-up drawing of it was as follows:

Painting Workshop Days at the Villa during July & August…https://www.fothergillsgallery.co.uk/contents/en-us/d72_watercolour-painting-workshop-days.htmlind out more!

The hunter panel was inspired by a small stone carving which can be seen in the Villa’s museum of artefacts showing a hunter-god with a hare, dog and stag.

The ‘frieze’ saw me up a ladder painting with the barest of stencilling with a signwriter’s brush. The design was inspired by yet more of the mosaic in the Triclinium, or dining room of the villa. It was almost the last day of what by now had become something of marathon paint. I rather liked the colour which was ‘duck egg’.

www.nationaltrust.org.uk/chedworth-roman-villa

The Salway Room is used by schools on weekday mornings but is available at other times. You can find more details on the website or by phoning Chedworth Roman Villa on 01242 890256

Painting Workshop Days at the Villa during July & August…find out more!

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Last Friday was the most beautiful warm and sunny Spring day so I packed up my paints to seek pastures new, and do some painting ‘en plein air’. I had not been down the Duntisbourne valley before (just west of Cirencester) but with daffodils lining the lanes it was the place to be ‘far from the madding crowd’.

With mixed results I sat and daubed, but in the afternoon came across this obscure spot, not even signposted from the road. It is a tiny Saxon church with a ‘saddle back’ roof on the tower – it is a bit crooked, it’s not just my painting! It was the most peaceful spot in which to sit and paint, in the shade of an old ivy-clad wall. The valley dropped away to a babbling brook far below, and when the shadows had lengthened too far for me to follow, I found myself reluctant to return once again to the world.

It is well-known that many churches built on sacred pagan sites were dedicated to St. Michael (who legend has it fought with the angels against the devil). I wonder if this were the case here?

St Michael’s Church, Duntisbourne Rouse – An Original Watercolour Painting.

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Why do I like Malmesbury so much? The Abbey surely has much to do with it. I sang there with my choir (Wessex Male Choir) last year, and the atmosphere and acoustics were lovely. But in Spring weather such as we have had recently I decided to ‘get around’ to painting it, as I have intended to ever since we sang there.

A victim of the dissolution of the monasteries, if only there were more of it left, with its soaring spire, but I suppose we should be grateful that what is still there is so beautiful. The empty arches have a poetry and poignancy about them and speak to me of the temporary nature of our lives.

It is a busy architectural subject, so I have tried to keep the colours and shadows soft, as of a bright but hazy Spring morning. Turner painted it beautifully once, from afar, but I’ve not let that put me off!

Malmesbury Abbey – An Original Watercolour Painting

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Wishful thinking whilst we’re still in February, but I just painted this one for the cover of my ‘Cotswolds in Watercolour 2012’ Calendar, which needs to be printed soon, to be in the shops by Easter.

I’ve painted this view a number of times before, but each time it comes out differently. I had to leave room in sky for the title! Doesn’t it make you long for those days when you can laze on the warm grass in the sunshine, having a nap on the picnic rug.

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The recent snow has inspired me to paint a number of snowscenes, and in this depiction of the Almshouses in Chipping Campden, I am revisiting a scene I have painted before. This is partly to contribute to an ‘Artist’s Guide to the Cotswolds’ on which I am working, and hope to finish in a month or so.

It will be a sort of souvenir guide, but instead of photos it will have paintings and line drawings, as well as my own personal commentaries on the towns and villages. It’s an exercise in concise English as there are so many places in the Cotswolds which must be included. I have not put any figures in this picture, as I wanted it to be serene and uspoilt, like the snow before anyone has appeared and messed it up with footprints!

Cotswold Paintings and Watercolours by Chris Fothergill

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Eh? I hear you say, wait a minute, the left hand side of the painting is recognisable, but what is that building on the right?

In fact the picture above is a painting by Chris Fothergill, but a very close copy of an ink and watercolour painting of the Market Place by an artist, Frederick Stockdale. The original is in a museum in Devizes, Wiltshire, and came to light last year, untitled, but has since been traced to Northleach, and the artist verified.

The marvellous thing about it is it reveals for the first time what the old Market Hall (the building on column supports to the right) actually looked like, with the High Market Cross in the immediate foreground. It has long been known that the Market Hall existed and it has shown on old plans of the town, but until now there has been no image of it, as it was demolished in the 1820’s, which pre-dates even the earliest photography. As the rest of the Market Place and the Church is so accurately and well observed, even the pub sign showing a white horse (the name of the pub then, which is now the Sherborne Arms), then it is almost certainly a faithful rendition. The poor condition of the hall with its windows filled, and crumbling edges is quite apparent.

I was very excited to have such a new side of Northleach revealed, and couldn’t wait to copy the painting for myself. The artist’s use of pen and watercolour style is so similar to my own that it came easily to produce a copy, and I believe at a glance one would be hard put to tell the difference. Originally I was going to keep it for myself, but someone in the town persuaded me to sell it to them, and then another person persuaded me to paint another copy for them! After which I decided I would produce a small edition of fine art copies of 100 numbered and signed Giclee prints on watercolour paper.

• These Market Place Prints of Northleach are now available for purchase;

The image size is approx 13” x 8” and framed approx 19” x 14”.
I’m offering them at £79.00 fully framed with a single washlined double mount in a quiet gold frame. (Unframed mounted and packaged £49.00)

• Actually I did paint it once more for myself so I would have an original on my wall, but with a seasonal difference! See below:

 

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Arlington Row, Bibury in the snow.
I love painting snow, it’s so rewarding and pretty! But only from the comfort and warmth of my studio. Actually I did stand and do an drawing of the Bibury picture on the spot, but half an hour is enough. I have tried painting in the extreme cold – you put one wash of watercolour on the paper, and half an hour later it’s still wet! That’s my excuse anyway.

Snow at The Mill, Fairford.
A well know view to local people, and a chance to indulge in painting an old Mill in the snow reflected in water. An interesting challenge in tone and colour, but the view is balanced out by the church in the distance, and it’s a very Cotswold view. This was painted a few days ago just before doing the Fairford Advent Market on Friday evening. It was -2 degrees all evening! But the painting drew a lot of interest among the residents, and I may sell it yet!

Original watercolour paintings – Including Snow Scenes of the Cotswolds.

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(This painting is a copy by me, in acrylic paints on canvas)

Which is in fact ‘The Green, Northleach’ featuring Tudor House, home to Fothergills Gallery for 15 years from 1994 to 2010, to the left hand side of the painting!

This painting by Lowry came to light recently in Christie’s auction house, and sold for around £265,000. So what you may ask? Well I was tickled to think that our old shop was painted by Lowry at all.

I knew he had been to Northleach and done a charcoal sketch of The Green, as I had seen a copy of it, but I didn’t know he had gone on to do a painting.

It is set in the bitter winter of 1947, with children playing in the snow. I was so taken with the scene that I decided to paint a copy of Lowry’s original. Stretching a canvas to the original size of 18” x 21.5” I painted a thick layer of titanium white over the canvas in a rough texture as one might artex a ceiling. Then painting in the outlines with ivory black I began blocking in colours and putting in figures, then painting around them, and adding thin colour over thick, then more white. I studied the paintwork on the original (online!) and Lowry obviously worked back and forth in all sorts of ways. I found out that he only ever used five colours in oils; flake white, ivory black, vermillion, Prussian blue and yellow ochre. Getting into the mind of another artist is never easy, and I only used acrylics instead of oils so that I could accomplish the painting quickly and the thick paint would dry fast.

It was a fascinating exercise, and I was pleased with the result, which on the face of it is quite similar to the original. I put a thinnest watery grey wash over the top afterwards to age the thick paint, and some button polish near the edges to give a mucky patina.

Great fun, but I don’t think I’ll get £265,00 for it! The Ox House Wine Company in the Market Place, Northleach might just hang it in their Wine Bar though, it should make a good talking point!

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Old folk sitting on a bench in Cirencester today! I took a surreptitious photo but was spotted by the old chap with glasses. The two ladies on the right were having a good old chat while waiting for the bus. And why not?
I painted this first just with a brush, and then drew the outlines afterwards. Makes the thing slightly chaotic, but I like the freshness it gives.

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At last a sunny day that is warm enough to lure me out into the open air with my paints! I don’t mind a bit of outdoor sketching with a pencil when it’s freezing cold in the winter, but sitting on a painting stool for a couple of hours trying to abstract my mind is almost impossible when hypothermia starts to set in.

I wandered lonely as a cloud, floating on high o’er vales and hills, but then stopped the car at Chedworth as the Church in the morning sunlight caught my eye. The Cotswolds are rather brown and grey at the beginning of March, even when it’s sunny, but the churchyard with its grass, and yew trees looked warm and inviting, so I decided to look no further, and set up camp with my paintbox.

It’s quite a complicated architectural subject, but the advantage of painting on the spot is there is no time to fuss with unnecessary detail. In the studio I would have made far more of it, but I rather like it as it is! ……………Summer is on the way.

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