Strawberry Hill House Christmas Card

Strawberry Hill House Christmas Card

By Simon Cavelle

This year Strawberry Hill House has commissioned a Christmas card created by local artist, Simon Cavelle. Simon has been painting professionally for over 30 years, he has painted a number of the rooms at Strawberry Hill which have been made into greetings cards. He works in a range of media from small intimate sketches to large scale canvasses.

On creating the card Simon said:“Each painting is a challenge and this one was no exception. To paint a white house in snow is not that easy and needs some thought, for obvious reasons. I always try to capture something of the essence of a building as well as the architecture.

In this instance I decided that I could answer the practical challenges as well as include an important historical element. This idea was to adopt a dramatic background with a full moon which would allow the white/cream house to appear to push forward towards the viewer.

What better background to adopt than a spooky nightscape for a house where the first Gothic novel was written? The Castle of Otranto written in 1764 by Walpole was the inspiration for my painting.”

See behind-the-scenes of the making of the card on Simons website: www.pavilionart.com

The Christmas card is now available to purchase in the Strawberry Hill House Shop. For all enquires please contact: Zeta.McDonald@strawberryhillhouse.org.uk