Dugald Stark

Visitors to Winsford Walled Garden (open Wednesdays – Sundays, April to October, 10 – 5) can now not just wander in our beautiful walled gardens, full of inspirational summer colour, but view the paintings in my new studio with its wide double french doors overlooking the gardens. I hope you will visit us and spend a while enjoying the paintings and sitting in the gardens. For more details visit  www.winsfordwalledgarden.info

We moved to Winsford Walled Garden in late February and we are still in the process of sorting out and settling into our new home and surroundings. Inspiration is everywhere – our own extensive and private gardens and the surrounding lane and countryside -and it’s still only early March.  We can’t wait to watch the spring and summer progress here.

We are leaving Trebarwith!  In fact we have found an idyllic new home in Devon – a bungalow, so I can get about, and a most perfect flower garden for me to paint, set in a Victorian walled garden.  See the ‘Contact’ page.

Paintings from  last summer – the gardens of both Lanhydrock and of Pencarrow near Bodmin provided such inspiration. I had Adel pose in dreamy settings – dappled sunlight patches under the giant rhododendrons or sat on a rustic bench with the reflected light shining off the new green grass, or, as here, underneath the cupola at Pencarrow which must have one of the largest wisteria I have ever seen.

Paintings of Port Isaac, Tintagel, Bossiney, Boscastle , Bedruthan Steps and of course Trebarwith. I enjoy working in series on showing aspects of different locations, although my access to good viewpoints is often limited. This summer I have indulged myself, painting a series of Adel among the flowers at Lanhydrock and Pencarrow gardens. I will post these soon.

Please don’t forget there are many delicious paintings of scenes and seasons in Buckinghamshire to be found on the Works page under Landscapes Spring/Summer and Autumn Winter. I still have very many happy memories of exploring and wandering among the fields in the Vale finding inspiration in so many aspects of nature.

Some of the latest projects I have been working on over the last few months are now on view in the New Paintings album on the Works page. These include a series of Bluebell Woods, mostly painted in the Great Wood at Lanhydrock, where I can still venture with my mobility scooter. There are a couple of paintings of a Lavender farm in Devon – not your usual Lavender in Provence type painting but instead under English grey skies. I have also really enjoyed painting aspects of Port Isaac, Tintagel and the cliffs at Bossiney by Rocky Valley.

I have just uploaded my new series of Boscastle Harbour paintings. Most concentrate on the wonderful winter sun lighting up the hillside in glorious harmonies of gold, reflecting in the water within the harbour at low tide. The patches of sand and seaweed also revealed at low tide make interesting horizontal accents to break up the reflections. My Misty Morning painting is an exploration of rich harmonies in hot oranges and reds softened with mauves and bright cobalt blues in the shadows.

I have been experimenting making short videos of themed selections of paintings and uploading them on YouTube. I have set these to some of my favourite pieces of classical music appropriate to how I feel about the paintings. Please check it out on www.youtube.com/dugadel – Hope you find them evocative and relaxing.

My Bedruthan Collection is now uploaded along with some Norwegian paintings. Latest projects currently on the go are Lanhydrock Woods, Boscastle and Padstow.