Rodney Matthews and Oliver Wakeman: In the Bleak Midwinter open edition giclèe art print

Matthews painted this image as the cover art for a collaborative music project - a new arrangement of the much loved Christmas carol 'In the Bleak Midwinter' - with keyboardist and composer Oliver Wakeman.  

Painting to the lyrics, Midwinter was very obviously going to be a snow scene, but of all the snow images Matthews has produced, this is the only one that actually depicts snowfall!  He chose a medieval setting, with a village and a towering church building (with a deliberate suggestion of vertigo prevailing). Remembering his trips to Scotland with his Scottish wife Sarah, he decided the creatures in this wintry scene would be a couple of "Heilan coos" - that's "Highland cows" to the rest of us.  Of course in true Matthews style there are a couple of twists - the horns are slightly exaggerated with barbs, and the heavy tails would in reality belong to yaks.

An accompanying track was released on 29 November 2019, with Matthews on drums and Wakeman on keys, plus David Mark Pearce on guitars, Steve Amadeo on bass, Miv Cameron and Charlotte Dickerson on vocals and Pete Coleman on recorders.