Matthew Rice has published over 10 books on architecture, designed many of the famous mugs for the business he ran with his ex-wife Emma Bridgewater, and illustrated for Country Life magazine and myriad of books. Educated at Bedales, Rice studied painting and theatre design at Chelsea and Central Schools of Art, is an honorary doctor of Keele and Staffordshire Universities and a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries.

Painting with watercolours from the young age of 14, Rice has used this favoured medium to record all that surrounds him, from the vegetables in his garden at Ham Court in Oxfordshire to Venetian rooftops in Italy. Opened regular for the National Garden Scheme, Ham Court, the last surviving gatehouse fragment of the medieval Bampton Castle has several acres of beautiful garden, orchard and paddock, partially moated with walled kitchen garden, productive greenhouse and farmyard with a variety of farm animals.

“When I settle to paint a potato or a pea, it is as if I am seeing it for the first time. All sorts of components and elements of its structure become apparent in a most exciting way. Even with the most familiar subjects, the careful hours of looking make it feel thrillingly new. Venice is always in my mind and I have drawn and painted it a lot, but I realised that we see it so often at night; walking home from dinner or a drink in a bar and that was an aspect of the much painted city I wanted to explore, explained Rice.

Rice’s latest body of work will be on show for an exhibition at James Graham-Stewart Antiques, 89 – 91 Scrubs Lane in London (NW10 6QU) on the of 7th November 2024. The ‘Exhibition of watercolours’ will feature paintings, painted in and about his garden this year and in Venice – which has been the subject of his work for many years but this collection of paintings looks at the enchanting place in a new light.