Cotswolds 2009

This Cotswolds painting describes a crisp winter’s day, and the pleasure of returning indoors after the exhilaration of a hike on the Cotswolds Way. The Cotswolds painting has a rhythmical feel to it, as the stream weaves determined to the farmhouse in the distance. The early winter morning, pure of air, the frost reflecting rose and pale blue hues underfoot.

I wanted to focus on the homestead, the Cotswolds country cottage, and use the historic scene and motif of the gable end of a farm house to great effect. As with all Uberpaintings, the Cotswolds painting treads a fine line between representation and a heightened essence of a place. So in this sense the Cotswolds painting takes the literal uber, meaning over and is over-painted. It is over the top. The Cotswolds painting is the happy return after a long walk on a cold winter’s day; the telegraph poles appear like beacons, guiding us in.

The Cotswolds is one of the quintessentially English and unspoiled regions of the British Isles. The area is officially the largest in England designated as an ‘area of natural beauty’ and broadly speaking stretches from Shakespeare’s Stratford upon Avon, to the beautiful spa city of Bath in the south. The towns that appear throughout the Cotswolds are seamlessly knitted together by the honey-coloured Cotswold stone, a limestone unique to the area. Something of a hidden gem in the Cotswolds in the old-fashioned charm of Burleigh Court Hotel and the perfectly tranquil Calcot Manor Spa, allows relaxation in beautiful Cotswolds surroundings.