Painting the Uffington White Horse
The Uffington White Horse is a 110m-long figure cut into a chalky hillside in Oxfordshire, England.
It was cut into the chalk by the Bronze Age people who lived there about 3,500 years ago. Clearly they wanted to make their mark at the highest point in the landscape, and perhaps a white horse was their tribal totem. Millennia later, local people still come out to ‘scour’ the horse every few years, repacking it with fresh white chalk and keeping the grass and plants from growing over it.
The Ridgeway is a path that runs past Uffington White Horse. It’s an 87 mile trail from West Kennet to Ivinghoe Beacon, and is the oldest trackway in continuous use in Europe. It was already ancient when the Romans arrived in Britain!
A place of significance
It is a place of great significance to so many people, living and dead, an extraordinary place that combines two things I love: nature and history. It’s where we took the children to run around when they were tiny. It’s where I met my husband. It’s where we scattered some of the ashes of our friend and Best Woman. The Uffington White Horse is such a magical place to me. It's a subject I have painted many times over the years.
 Towards Uffington, acrylic on canvas, 2012 |
Fields of Magic at Uffington, watercolour, 2006 |
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 White Horse, Brown Hare, watercolour, 2011 |
Chalk Hill Blues, watercolour, 2011 |
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Ridgeway Butterflies, watercolour, 2013 |
Byron’s Rideway Walk, watercolour, 2010 |
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Long Grass at White Horse Hill, acrylic on canvas, 2013 |
A Bigger White Horse Hill, acrylic on canvas, 2012 |
