New Paintings and a Showcase

April and May have been wonderfully busy months, with eleven paintings now finding temporary homes at The Lost Manor and Coulscott House and Holiday Cottages.

It has been a real pleasure working with Alice and Luke — not only having the opportunity to showcase my work within their beautiful properties, but also getting to know the spaces themselves and the atmosphere they have created for their guests.

I mentioned this exciting opportunity briefly in my previous blog and I thought it would be nice to share a little more about both the properties and the paintings now hanging within them.

First to mention is Coulscott House and Holiday Cottages.

Set within beautiful North Devon countryside and surrounded by thoughtfully restored barns and cottages, the property immediately feels calm, welcoming, and carefully considered. There’s a warmth to the place that made choosing the paintings for the space feel very natural.

Looking up to The Georgian House at Coulscott.

The beautiful dining room at Coulscott

Being a little closer to the coast at Combe Martin, I chose to hang several works inspired by sea air, open skies, and the North Devon coastline.

‘Crow Point’ (10” x 8”) and ‘Crow Point to Saunton Sands, A Beautiful Walk’ (10” x 16”), both oil on board and presented in simple wooden floating frames, are paintings shaped by those bright coastal days where the sky seems to stretch endlessly above the shoreline.

Although modest in scale and painted outdoors in a single sitting, both pieces attempt to capture something beyond the view itself — the feeling of summer light, salt air, and the sense of space that comes from standing beneath those vast Devon skies.

Alongside these hangs ‘Grapes & Lemons on a Silver Tray’ (10” x 8”), an alla prima still life painted in the studio. With its warmer tones and quieter atmosphere, the piece felt particularly suited to the kitchen setting, gently echoing the long tradition of food and fruit paintings that have appeared in homes for centuries.

One of the things I’ve especially enjoyed about this opportunity is seeing the paintings displayed in situ — becoming part of lived spaces rather than simply existing on gallery walls.

Setting up and getting a few shots.....

Each painting also includes a small QR code within its description label, allowing visitors staying at the properties to explore the work further online if something catches their eye during their stay. I rather like the idea that a quiet moment with a coffee, a view across the countryside, or simply passing a painting each morning might spark a connection with a piece.

The other paintings are all hanging at ‘The Lost Manor’, Chulmleigh, Devon.

The Lost Manor is nestled within the beautiful North Devon countryside at Chulmleigh, roughly equidistant between Dartmoor and Exmoor. From the Manor, the views stretch towards the famous tors of Dartmoor, and the house itself provides a wonderful base for exploration and discovery.

The surrounding landscape forms part of the Culm grasslands — one of the richest and most important grassland habitats in the world — supporting species such as the Curlew and the rare Marsh Fritillary butterfly. Although immersed in the quiet wildness of the moors, the area also lies within easy reach of some of North Devon’s most beautiful coastline.

With a gentle nod towards the nearby coast, ‘Across The Water to Instow’ (9” x 16”), oil on board with a simple wooden floating frame, hangs within the bright dining and relaxation area beside the newly renovated kitchen.

Painted alla prima and outdoors from Crow Point, the piece looks across the estuary towards the beautiful village of Instow. The expansive Devon sky dominates the scene, reflected in almost turquoise water, while occasional sails drift quietly in the distance.

Elsewhere throughout the house, four smaller still life paintings can be discovered while wandering between the kitchen, reception rooms, and welcoming hallway spaces.

‘A Wee Dram, Whisky, Water Jug & Jigger’, ‘Pepper Grinder with Onions & Pepper’, ‘Garlic Bunch with Crusher & Opinel’, and ‘A Light Lunch’ — all 10” x 8”, oil on board and presented in wooden floating frames — sit naturally within the warmth of the interior spaces.

Painted in a chiaroscuro style, these pieces draw inspiration from the still life traditions of the Baroque period, using light and shadow to create atmosphere and intimacy. Against the wood tones and character of the Manor interiors, they seem very much at home.

For the larger spaces within the house, I chose three paintings directly inspired by Dartmoor itself — works intended to echo the extraordinary landscape waiting just beyond the doorstep.

The first is ‘Sunset over Wallabrook Clapper Bridge, Scorhill Down, Dartmoor’ (33” x 21”), oil on stretched canvas with wooden floating frame.

The painting grew from a late autumn walk across the moor with sketchbook and coloured pencils in hand. As the afternoon faded, the sky suddenly deepened into an intense red as darkness began to fall. I found myself sketching quickly, trying to capture the feeling before the light disappeared completely.

Back in the studio, using the sketches, colour notes, and photographs gathered that evening, the final painting slowly emerged.

What stayed with me most was the sense of space — and a curious underlying tension stretching across the landscape. Standing there alone, it was easy to imagine travellers crossing the ancient bridge generations ago, or figures fishing quietly in the river below.

The scene itself is stark and simple, very much as I encountered it that evening.

The second piece is ‘Misty Sunrise, Bellever Tor, Dartmoor — Did You See the Hound?’ (25” x 19”), again painted in oils on stretched canvas with a floating wooden frame.

Although Bellever Tor is not directly linked to The Hound of the Baskervilles in the same way as Hound Tor, its proximity to Princetown and the wider Baskerville landscape inevitably brought the story to mind while I worked.

It was an early morning sketching session, completely alone except for birdsong and the sound of pencil moving across paper. Mist drifted slowly across the ground as the first sunlight broke over the tor, creating an atmosphere that felt both peaceful and strangely surreal.

The finished piece developed from those initial sketches, colour studies, and photographs taken during that remarkable morning.

If you ever have the opportunity to walk across Bellever Tor yourself, I highly recommend it. There is something mesmerising and quietly haunting about the place.

The final Dartmoor-inspired work is ‘Scorhill Stones, Dartmoor Sunset’ (33” x 21”), oil on stretched canvas with floating wooden frame.

Painted as the sun lowered behind the ancient stones of Scorhill Stone Circle, the piece centres around the immense sky and the shifting evening light across the moor.

The stone circle itself is thought to date back around 4,000 years to the Bronze Age, and simply standing there, one cannot help but feel surrounded by history, myth, and storytelling.

As the light faded, the foreground gradually disappeared into shadow while the last sunlight caught the edges of the stones, briefly separating them from the darkening landscape before they once again became part of it.

In many ways the composition is very simple — sky and stones — yet I hoped to capture something deeper within the atmosphere of the place: peace, space, stillness, and the enduring presence of an unspoilt landscape.

I hope you’ve enjoyed joining me on some of the journeys and moments that inspired these paintings.

All of the works featured here can be found within the Original Artworks/ Landscape section of the website.

Thank you for reading, and speak soon.

Chris