Golden Stream

This morning I wrote out my shopping list but instead of heading towards the nearest supermarket decided "there must be more to life" and instead headed to Mottisfont Abbey near Romsey in Hampshire.

The main attraction was a Norman Thelwell Art exhibition. Thelwell was mainly known as a cartoonist , reknown for his pictures of little girls and their plump snorting ponies.  I recall the pictures in books from my youth - and seeing some of the originals in full colour was amazing. He was also an extremely accomplished artist of more traditional views of the local area.  To me what was most remarkable was the intense colours of the works which he achieved using water colours.

The walk around the grounds was invigorating, and gave me more opportunities to try out my new fisheye lens.  This is a cascade along a originating from the well which gives Mottisfont its name and eventually leads into the River Test. 

The extra shows the cellarium which was part of the original Abbey, which was another victim of Henry VIII's Dissolution of the Monesteries. He gave Mottisfont to a favoured statesman, Sir William Sandys, who turned it into a country home