Page 19 - Oundle Life February 2023

and buildings. I am particularly well known for my paintings of Oundle. I love the town, and feel very fortunate to be able to paint my beautiful surroundings. I have sold my work to many customers in this country and abroad. What is the best thing about your job? Painting for a living. I consider myself so lucky to be able to spend a fair bit of my time doing what I love best.
Favourite artwork on sale today? ‘Oundle in Lockdown’. In 2020 during the lockdown, I painted an oil painting of New Street, Oundle with an early morning light illuminating some of the buildings, there were no people or vehicles in the picture. ‘Oundle in Lockdown’ seemed the appropriate title.
Anyone famous popped in? Rowan Atkinson was a regular visitor while he lived in the area. We framed a lot of pictures for him.
You have £10 to give to charity, who do you choose? Cancer Research and we donate
monthly contributions to other charities. A few years ago we were approached by
‘Oundle Volunteer Action’ to produce a Jigsaw using a painting that Gillian had illustrated of Oundle which shows lots of shops, businesses, buildings and people of the town. Gillian agreed to do this free of charge so all the profits went to the charity. One thousand copies were sold and after the production costs, £10,000 was raised!
Which artist, past or present, would you like to meet? That’s quite a difficult question, there are so many, but it would have to be ‘Turner’.
You have a day off, what do you do? I usually end up doing some renovation work on our house. Being an old listed building it’s always in need something doing. Other than that, I like tinkering with my 1966 Classic MGB.
If money was no object, where would you visit? We would both like to visit India, but in the cool season!!!
www.dolby-gallery.com
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