A labour of love for this most beautiful garden

14 May 2016

Many artists have taken up the challenge to become a daily painter. But not many have managed to do it every single day for a year.

Deborah Last, a professional artist who is based at Stowe, spent 2015 recording the changing seasons and the play of light on this unique setting. Each day she set out with a fresh canvas into the 18th-century landscape and, finding the perfect position, she commenced her work. These plein air paintings capture the passing moments of quiet and beauty that only those who have visited Stowe can truly understand. 

These initial investigations were then worked fully in to paintings, capturing a moment in time. Deborah's use of expressive mark making and her brilliant understanding of colour combine contemporary painting with a historic landscape. Many of the paintings depict views which would be recognisable to Stowe's historic owners.

Capability Brown would have strode out into this same landscape to record the changing seasons and the play of light on the landscape he was creating. In this vein Deborah Last walks in his footsteps recording the very landscape he would have known.

To complete three-hundred and sixty-five paintings is an amazing achievement and indeed a labour of love for this most beautiful garden.

Deborah Last's work is on display in the Stowe House Discovery Centre as part of our Capability Brown season until Wednesday 1st June. House admission applies.

For more information about the work of Deborah Last please visit her website: www.deborahlast.co.uk