Postcard from Rutland: 'Field and Feather'

Here at Gladwells Rutland, we’re looking forward to 2023 and a full and exciting calendar for the year ahead. To mark the shortest month, our February exhibition ‘Field and Feather’ will celebrate the changing landscape around us and the awakening life within it.

Karl Martens, 'Wren I', Watercolour, 56 x 38 cms, 22" x 15", £2,500

Often hidden but ever present, little Jenny Wren can be seen throughout the winter across a variety of habitats. Though diminutive in size, Wrens are hardy by nature and popular in folklore, earning the title king amongst birds. Karl Martens’ beautiful watercolour meditation on the Wren is created with the use of Japanese and Chinese paint brushes and drawn from vivid visual memories developed over years of studying birds in the wild.

Jonathan Walker, 'The Stalker', Watercolour, 43 x 25 cms, 17" x 10", £950

Jonathan Walker’s elegantly crafted watercolours depict a world of creatures from the field, hedgerow and wood. A cast of dandy hares, curmudgeonly badgers, and connoisseur mice. The Stalker is a shady country gent, dressed in fusty tweed with a patched bag of loot slung over his shoulder. Jonathan creates mischief and humour through his personification of the hunched figure of Mr Fox, layering human characteristics upon his essential wildness with the sweep of a brush.

Kenneth Webb, 'Midday Fragrance', Oil on Board, 23 x 15 cms, 9" x 6", £3,150

In his flower paintings we see how Kenneth Webb’s passion for colour is born out of painting natural subjects in their environment. He renders the brilliance of the red poppies without a hint of brashness against the purity of the daisies. His leaves and petals rely on texture and his skilful brush strokes give them life and body whilst maintaining their delicate fragility.

Barbara Rae Norridge, 'Splendour in the Grass', £3000

Barbara Rae Norridge is an artist local to Rutland who hails from South Africa originally. It was here that she first developed a passion for observing and painting guinea fowl. The birds emerge from the warm neutrals of the African Savannah, with the iridescent plumage of their heads striking against their spotted feathered bodies.