The artist capturing the nostalgic charm of UK villages in winter
For many of us, the run-up to Christmas can mean online shopping, emailing festive messages and sorting out social arrangements on WhatsApp. But for Vanessa Bowman and her friends, it is a chance to keep low-tech traditions alive.
Every year, Vanessa and her friends go carol singing, walking from cottage to cottage along the quaint lanes of the Dorset village where she lives. Wrapped up warm, they hold lanterns and sometimes bring one of their dogs.
“Cattistock is the quintessential English village,” says Vanessa. “We’re very close and there’s always something going on.” As an artist, Vanessa gets most of the ideas for her work from her surroundings. “The seasons are a big inspiration,” she says.
Her working day starts with a local stroll, when she will gather a few sprigs of greenery – perhaps rosehips or ivy – to arrange into a still-life in her garden studio. Then she comes up with a narrative for a picture – such as carol singing – and creates a scenario. Other festive tableaux might show people choosing a tree, browsing a Christmas market or baking mince pies.
“Everything I paint is based on where I live – if there are sheep in a picture, they’ll be the sheep around here. If there are robins and blackbirds, they are the ones I might have seen in the garden.”
Sometimes Vanessa, who grew up nearby, can’t help but conjure up a memory of her own childhood. She has fond recollections of lying beneath the Christmas tree at home staring up through the brightly coloured lights and branches, as well as skating on frozen flooded fields in her wellies with her sisters, Claire and Sarah. “I hear the bells of Midnight Mass and still find it hard to get to sleep,” she laughs.
Once Vanessa has a scene in mind, she gets to work. She paints on card with oils for their colour saturation and texture. Each piece requires a fresh palette, which she creates by squeezing different colours of paint in a circle. “It’s a ritual for me,” she says. Sometimes, she will limit the colours to two or three and use multiple shades of each. A Christmas snow scene, for example, could be depicted in just red, white and green. Today, Vanessa is drawing a typical winter landscape. “I often include the church because I can see it from the studio,” she says. This picture will also feature hills covered in a blanket of snow, branches of fir, holly and a robin.
To get the perfect consistency for her paint, Vanessa will thin down the paints with a citrus-based oil, an alternative to turpentine. It fills the studio with a festive orange scent. Vanessa’s paintings have a distinctive style with a flat perspective and rich details. She takes care, for example, to depict stones in the walls of buildings, the plumage of pheasants and clusters of plants. She gets much of her talent from her father, Mike Bowman, a former art master at a school in Dorchester, who taught her how to draw and still paints himself. Vanessa then developed her style while studying for a degree in printed textiles at Winchester School of Art.
After graduating, she initially worked for big fashion brands. But in the early 2000s, Vanessa and Nick, her husband, moved to Cattistock and she put her efforts into renovating the farmhouse they still call home. She combines her painting with other design projects.
Vanessa quickly found customers for her artwork, which she sells through galleries and also in the form of cards, prints and calendars. Businesses have approached her, too.
A few years ago, the Highgrove Estate commissioned two Christmas card designs featuring hares and pheasants wandering through the grounds, while Farrow & Ball asked Vanessa to create a picture for a set of paint colours they had designed with the Natural History Museum. She has also exhibited her work in White Space Art in Totnes, The Jerram Gallery in Sherborne and the Red Rag Gallery in Bath.
There is one exhibition, however, that only residents of Cattistock get to see. Some of the villagers sign up each year to create Advent windows – festive displays in a downstairs window of their home. Everyone contributes a scene, with a display going up in different homes on each day before Christmas. This year, Vanessa is producing two: a richly illustrated Victorian theatre- style display on a Nutcracker theme and a lace-like papercut village scene lit up with fairy lights.
Both conjure up a sense of Christmases past. Vanessa hopes they leave passers-by with feelings of cosiness and comfort. “I like to think of a child pressing their cold little nose against the glass,” she says, “thinking, ‘This is completely magical.’”
The Full Six Bar Collection
Bare Bones Chocolate's single-origin bars, made in its Glasgow factory, are beloved by Rick Stein – and who are we to disagree? Treat a chocaholic to the full range, or divvy them out into Christmas stockings.
£39.00 at bareboneschocolate.co.uk
Scoops
What to give the coffee-lover who has everything? Why, a beautiful cherry-wood scoop, of course. These are hand-carved by woodworker Ambrose Vevers, and will be used in daily coffee rituals and treasured for years to come.
Inspiritus Scented Tin Candle
We celebrated this sustainable candle-maker’s 30th birthday in 2024. From its Cornish farm workshop, St. Eval now makes several million candles a year – but its festive wintery fragrances are always firm favourites.
Winnats Roll Top
The Level Collective is an outdoor lifestyle brand inspired by founder and designer Mark Musgrave's sense of adventure. Specialising in sustainable, handmade British pieces, its waxed cotton backpacks are particular favourites.
£349.00 at thelevelcollective.com
Black Meander Candle Holder Small
Jo Anna Butler and Gearoid Muldowney – aka Superfolk – craft homeware and prints inspired by the wild Irish coast. The design of this copper candle holder was based on the meanderings of the Owenmore river – a unique and special gift.
Baa-ble Hat Pattern
Why not knit a present with one of Donna Smith's charming hat patterns? Donna knits and produces naturally dyed yarn from her croft house on West Burra.
£4.00 at donnasmithdesigns.co.uk
2025 Calendar
In her Speyside studio, Angie Lewin transforms sketches of the landscape into evocative prints and paintings. Her 2025 calendar showcases a seasonal botanical design each month, and comes with £20 voucher to redeem against the purchase of any of Angie's prints – sure to be well-received by any art lover.
rose + oud eau de parfum
Joan Woods, founder of organic perfumery Waters + Wild, takes her inspiration from the countryside around her in County Cork. Fragrances are created using natural ingredients from her studio overlooking the Atlantic.
Seaweed Pressing Kit
Molesworth & Bird make designs using pressed seaweed from Dorset and Cornwall – there are over 600 species in the British Isles. Spark a new hobby by gifting their seaweed pressing kit, complete with guide.
£70.00 at molesworthandbird.com
Paper Narcissi
They press blooms from the garden and produce paper using the kitchen blender... the mother and daughter behind Flint, in Sussex, take a down-to-earth approach to crafting their wares. Gift a few of these handmade crepe paper narcissi for a forever vase of flowers.
Initialled Oak Leather Flask
Jason Booth and Gemma Gilleard, of Hord, channel inspiration from the Pennine Hills into bespoke leather accessories for outdoor adventurers. Monogrammed hip flasks are amongst their most popular gifts.
Sussex Oak Fabric Cushion
This is a cushion with a story; Sarah Burns forages for plants to creates dyes from her West Sussex studio, which are then used to block print linen and hemp. Her cushions are filled with local wool and would add a dose of country charm to any sofa.
£90.00 at sarahburnspatterns.com
Wild Tree
Forget six-foot Norway spruces: the Arboretum's Christmas trees, made by a woodworking duo, can fit in the palm of your hand and will never drop their needles.
Cider Brandy
Anyone would be delighted to receive this tipple, from Herefordshire cider-makers Artistraw.
From Coast & Cove: An artist’s year in paint and pen
Acclaimed illustrator Anna Koska celebrates fish, fruit, shells and seaweeed collected near her Devon home in paintings that burst with life. This book is a beautiful love-letter to the natural world around her.
You Might Also Like
