Skymeadow Gallery

Home
United Kingdom
Colchester
Skymeadow Gallery

Author and art dealer. Purveyor of beautiful paintings, prints and lithographs. East Anglian focus. Insta:

02/06/2026

Step into the Cote d’Azure with Terence Clarke one of our best contemporary colourists, available now at Skymeadow Gallery.

Terence Clarke
‘Côte d’Azur’
Framed dimensions: 79 x 89 cm
For price enquiries please contact gallery

01/06/2026

Pink roses by Scottish painter John Bulloch Souter at Skymeadow Gallery now and available to purchase.

What better way to start June, the month of roses!

John Bulloch Souter (1890-1972)
‘Pink roses in a vase’
Framed dimensions: 53 x 43 cm
For price please contact the gallery

🌷

18/05/2026

Delighted to see ‘Skymeadow: notes from an English gardener’ whilst browsing in Waterstones especially in such good company.
A great selection of gardening books… Robin Lane Fox’s ‘Thoughtful Gardening’ is superb. Humbled to see my contribution next to it!

14/05/2026

This is a detail form Primavera (Spring) by Sandro Botticelli made in the 1470s in Florence.
The painting is an allegory for spring and in the detail above which broadly speaking relates to the month of May we see Mercury chasing away the last vestiges of winter.
Sitting in the sunniest corner of England (Essex, probably an accolade also shared with Kent) it seems like an appropriate passage this morning.
I always felt Botticelli was overdoing it placing Mercury in May to chase away the tail end of winter but with hailstones raining down yesterday and more expected today it appears he was a more perspicacious observer of climate than me. Botticelli 1-0 Hart.

13/05/2026

‘Essex Farm’ by Walter Steggles produced in 1928.
This is a ‘Drypoint’ a technique of printmaking in which the artist draws directly onto a plate (sometimes copper) and then uses the plate to create the image - the effect is to produce soft velvety lines.
Meanwhile the plates themselves are soft and wear down typically limiting the number of impressions the artist can produce.
Both factors lend ‘Drypoints’ a sort of soft and ephemeral quality.
Steggles created this image of a tumbledown Essex Farm in 1928. Steggles was a prominent member of the ‘East London Group’ of artists, mostly working class and self taught, who shot to prominence between the wars.
Walter Sickert became an important mentor to the group, encouraging them to paint their immediate surroundings and even agreeing to exhibit with them at the Lefevre Gallery in 1929, a year after Steggles made this Drypoint.

Walter Steggles
‘Essex Farm, 1928’
Framed dimensions: 27.5 x 31.5 cm
For price enquiries please contact the gallery

12/05/2026

Acquired directly from the artist by the previous owner this Frank Auerbach etching is marked H/C which stands for hors commerce ‘not for sale’.

Auerbach visited his great friend and fellow artist Joe Tilson in Somerset and made the etching, Tilson bit the plate himself and Tilson’s son Jake printed it.

This was the first etching which lead to the ‘Six Etchings of Heads’ series, Auerbach’s first series of portrait etchings produced in 1980 and published by Marlborough Graphics in London.

The full series included portraits of artists Lucien Freud, R.B. Kitaj, Leon Kossoff, Gerda Boehm and Julia Auerbach. In adition to his wife and cousin all were members of his artistic circle.

This etching was printed at Palm Tree Studios and has their blindstamp.

Frank Auerbach
Joe Tilson from ‘Six Etchings of Heads’ inscribed H/C, signed titled and dated.
Framed dimensions: 46 x 40 cm
For price enquiries please contact the gallery

06/05/2026

I pursued this painting for years and finally bought it after its skillful restoration had been completed.
I am so pleased I did.
Selling paintings is a bitter sweet experience at the best of times.
Painted by the artist Abraham Solomon in 1851 my original thought was that the sitter might be Eugenie, Napoleon III’s wife.
The trouble is … whilst the facial type supports a Eugenie picture the hair colour doesn’t really. Eugenie had (and was always painted with) noticeably red hair.
I discussed the painting with a knowledgable historian of the period and he thought the hair colour likely ruled Eugenie out - our sitter is therefore likely to be an unknown Spanish lady.
Unknown is perhaps too harsh, unidentified might be better because she remains in some way known through this lovely and balanced portrait.
The picture has a sort of internal ballast to it, it has weight but is not heavy - if that makes sense! It manages to be a comfort through challenging times and a quiet call to an altogether better and simpler way of being in easy times, for me at least!
It remains in our gallery ‘collection’ but I am sorely tempted to move it ‘upstairs’ (those of you who know us will know what that means). I WILL move it ‘upstairs’ if Sybilla lets me!

21/04/2026

Definitely my Queen.
A bromide print by Lisa Sheridan July 1962.
Long live the King!

16/04/2026

Doesn’t this time of year make you feel excited?

The artist Stuart Scott Somerville (1908-1983) was famed for his floral still lives painted in the manner of the old masters and this is a brilliant example.

The painting can be dated to the middle of the summer of 1951 on account of its containing poppies, delphiniums and hollyhocks and the narrow window when all three might be found in the garden together.

By 1951 Somerville was living at Newbourne Hall near Woodbridge in Suffolk and was an active member of the Ipswich Art Club regularly exhibiting at the Royal Academy.

Somerville’s floral still lives enjoyed significant commercial success and were stocked by numerous interior designers in London. They doubtless created a useful income stream for the artist and helped keep the lights on at Newbourne Hall!

This is a really accomplished example but what I like about it best is that unlike many of his others, with its cheery selection of flowers it really draws together the true delights of an English country garden in high summer.

Stuart Scott Somerville (1908-1983)
‘Flowers on a ledge, 1951’
Framed dimensions: 75 x 65 cm
For price enquiries, contact gallery

13/04/2026

Gastard near Lacock in Wiltshire by Walter Steggles.
As ever with Steggles I look to the sky; also I love the purples he’s mixed on the right and the way he has used the wall to make the foreground (a risk if you think about it) and yet there is no sense of strain in the picture overall, it really works as a painting. Are those the Downs in the distance? Does anyone know if you can see the Downs from around Gaston?

I think Churchill said painting a picture is like fighting a battle. Sometimes the result is a victory, sometimes a defeat and sometimes the outcome is inconclusive. I feel this is a victory and a very welcome addition to our collection.

Walter Steggles
‘Gaston near Lacock, Wiltshire’
Framed dimensions: 38 x 48 cm
For price enquiries please contact the gallery

Address

Colne Engaine
Colchester
CO6

Telephone

+447747600322

Website

http://www.skymeadowgallery.com/

Alerts

Be the first to know and let us send you an email when Skymeadow Gallery posts news and promotions. Your email address will not be used for any other purpose, and you can unsubscribe at any time.

Contact The Museum

Send a message to Skymeadow Gallery:

Shortcuts

Want your museum to be the top-listed Museum in Colchester?