I have lived on the Ury Estate, once owned by the Barclay family of banking fame, for more than 15 years.
Every day, in every season and every time of day, I have walked around its many trails and byways, usually in the company of a dog or two and my own thoughts.
The sights I see on these walks constantly find their way into my work and I could fill several galleries with paintings of Ury alone.
This painting reimagines the distinctive towered house on the Ury Estate — a landmark often glimpsed through trees and memory — in a composition alive with rhythm and contrast. The building, rendered in warm brick tones, rises serenely against a deep indigo sky, its geometry softened by washes of green and violet.
The interplay of structured architecture and fluid, musical colour defines the mood: a dialogue between permanence and improvisation. Subtle collage fragments beneath the surface echo fragments of time — the estate’s layered history, weathered yet luminous.
Ury Blues belongs as much to feeling as to place. It captures that moment when the evening light shifts toward cobalt and the house seems to float, half-real, half-remembered — a harmony of land, structure, and song.
