"Days Lock from Wittenham Clumps" By Luke Piper (now sold 29/5/12)

£145.00

TRULY MAGNIFICENT LIMITED EDITION PRINT OF THE LUKE PIPER PAINTING  "Days Lock from Wittenham Clumps". BY THE AMAZING INTERNATIONALLY ACCLAIMED ARTIST LUKE PIPER.........!

Luke has captured the ancient bronze age splendour of this magical area from the Wittenham Clumps Celtic Hill fort!! This whole area is steeped in history and legend!!

As up the hill with labr'ing steps we tread
Where the twin Clumps their sheltering branches spread
The summit gain'd at ease reclining lay
And all around the wide spread scene survey
Point out each object and instructive tell
The various changes that the land befell
Where the low bank the country wide surrounds
That ancient earthwork form'd old Mercia's bounds
In misty distance see the barrow heave
There lies forgotten lonely Cwichelm's grave.

Around this hill the ruthless Danes intrenched
And these fair plains with gory slaughter drench'd
While at our feet where stands that stately tower
In days gone by up rose the Roman power
And yonder, there where Thames smooth waters glide
In later days appeared monastic pride.
Within that field where lies the grazing herd
Huge walls were found, some coffins disinter'd
Such is the course of time, the wreck which fate
And awful doom award the earthly great.

Taken from the Poem Tree which is an Ancient Beech that is located on Castle Hill at Wittenham Clumps in Oxfordshire. The poem was carved into the Tree in the 1840s by Joseph Tubb. The tree died in the 1990s but was selected by the Tree Council as one of  50 Great British Trees!!!! This beautiful Poem was inspired by Tubb's fondness of the surrounding Landscape that Luke Piper has so beautifully represented!!!!! The "Ancient Earthwork" at "Mercia's bounds" from the Poem may be the Ridgeway or Grim's Ditch. At the time of Alfred the Great the then border between Mercia and Wessex (West Saxons) ran roughly in a line from east to west through this point!! The mention of Cwichelm's (or Culchelm's) grave refers to Scutchhamer Knob, a barrow on the Ridgeway near Grim's Ditch, approx 8 miles from the Poem Tree. The Barrow was originally known as Cwichelmeshlaew or Cwichelm's Barrow and is historically recorded as the site at which Cwichelm of Wessex was killed by Edwin of Northumbria in 636!!!. The Barrow can be seen in the misty distance!! On a clear day the Berkshire downs can be viewed. The "Smooth waters" of the River Thames refers to the river running through Dorchester -on-Thames where the Augustinian Dorchester Abbey is mentioned. The disenterred coffins may refer to an 18th Century discovery of 2 skeletons at the Summit of Round Hill, Wittenham Clumps!!!

 

 The Poem Tree

Limited edition 3 of 250

 

 

Luke Piper is an English Landscape painter with incredible success!! His Grand Father was the famous Artist John Piper who has over 182 of his works in the Tate collection. Major retrospective exhibitions have been held at Tate Britain (1983-1984), the Dulwich Picture Gallery and the Imperial War Museum! His auction record was £325,000 at Sotheby's on the 15th July 2008 for "Forms on Dark Blue" a 3' x 4' oil painted in 1936!!

"...the colour, light and structure of our surroundings fascinates the more you observe until you finally unearth the raw spirit of it all and come home feeling infinitely satisfied and strangely human..." Luke Piper

Measurements; 11 inches x 15 inches   ( 28 cms x 38 cms) .............Signed by the Artist!

 

                 Ref only:          www.lukepiper.com                           asgard-arts.com   

Luke Piper  (born 1966) is an English landscape painter, especially in watercolours.

Luke Piper is the son of the painter Edward Piper. He is also the eldest grandson of another artist, John Piper. He grew up in Frome, Somerset and is still based in the county. He studied at Frome College and then read geography at the University of Cambridge!! 

Piper's first major show of artworks was at the CCA Galleries, Dover Street, London in 1992 also used by his father. Since that time he has exhibited regularly in London and at venues such as the Henley Festival, Renishaw Hall, the River and Rowing Museum, Stonor and elsewhere in England. 

He has travelled around the world to paint, including Nairobi via Western Sahara and Zaire in 1995, the Sahara desert in 1999 and 2000, Nepal and the Himalayas in 1998 and 2000–01, and Australia, New Zealand and Fiji 2002–03. In 2008, he painted in Egypt  (including Luxor,  Greece (including Paxos), Switzerland and Italy. He has also painted in France, Ireland and Spain as well as around the United Kingdom, including many paintings of the River Thames.

He married in 1997. His brother Henry Piper is a Sculptor.

                                                                                                                         


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