In 2022 I wrote a post about my ‘Christmas at Combe Park’ paintings which I’ve done over the years chronicling the kids growing up and our changing family life.
From Connie the cat scuttling across the hallway in 2015 to the year of the rabbits in 2017. (It turned out that they were not two females, and we did not manage to keep their offspring apart either, spawning yet another generation. I think we had around thirteen in the end before Foxy Loxy got ‘em!) Then there’s the appearance of Moses our dog in 2019. The penguins are there all the way through . . .
Since my last post, I completed the 2022 painting (scroll down to the end of this post to see it) and nearly finished the 2023 one (at the top of this post). I never got Ollie’s second leg in the foreground on the left.
The other day I said to Lisa, “I probably won’t do a Christmas at Combe Park one this year”.
She told me not to be so silly. So I am thinking about where in the house to set it.
“Not through the open front door please, Pete,” Lisa requested (rhetorically, I concluded), “It’s just too bloody cold!”
Maybe it will be of the ridiculously big tree in the dining room. (I seem to think I live in a castle; I always have to cut it down to fit!) I don’t think I’ll have the family decorating it – that would make even Richard Curtis feel queasy! We shall see . . . Drinking games around the table, maybe?
It’s funny, I thought that as they grew up, they’d be better at posing but it seems a wriggler is a wriggler for life.
Christmas at Combe Park 2022
Keep an eye on my Instagram to see how this year’s painting progresses and to find out if Ollie’s second leg will finally materialise . . .
