Stonehenge seen from the Heel Stone at dusk.

SOLD

 

West Kennet Avenue stone, Avebury, Wiltshire.

Oil on canvas 405mm x 310mm

This is one of a number of standing stones making up a line stretching from the famous Avebury stone circle. Some are columns and some, like this example, as lozenge shaped. These stones were set up in the UK at the end of the Neolithic and into the Early Bronze Age. So, c.2500 BCE. 

 

                                                Cothiemuir Wood, Aberdeenshire, Scotland.

                                                     Oil on canvas 300mm x 400mm

Part of a larger circle of stones, most of which has been taken away. The recumbant stone is 14ft long and the flankers are 9ft tall. Stone circles may have been ritual sites and many are aligned with sunrise or sunset, but will we never know what they were built for. 

 

Hello! I am an archaeologist and historian and I paint scenes of the past in oils. I will be putting up my paintings for all to see and if you like them please let me know. I am not trained as an artist, I do it for love of history and a relaxation. I will give some historical information on all my pictures.      

Sherborne Old Castle, Dorset.

Oil 500mm x 200mm.

Built in the 1120s by Roger, Bishop of Sarum (Salisbury). He was chancellor to Henry I. It was seized by King John in 1139 and remained Crown land for 200 years. Bishop Wyvil returned it to the church in 1357. It was given to Sir Walter Ralegh in the 1590s who turned it into a country mansion, but built another house nearby in a more fashionable style to live in. During the Civil War of the 1640s it was besieged twice by Parliament forces and then reduced, to avoid a third siege. After the war the land was owned by the Digby family, who kept the ruined castle as a feature in the landscape, later remodelled by the gardener 'Capability' Brown. It was taken into the care of the state in 1956 - the year I was born!