Oxford

Oxford brings together the city’s distinctive skyline and its culture of books, learning and discovery in a richly layered mixed-media composition.

Dark domes and pointed spires stretch across the foreground, their edges picked out in yellow. Behind them, fragments of printed pages, bookshelves, rulers and drawing instruments build an imagined city beneath a clouded, moonlit sky. A compass occupies the centre, surrounded by small objects and images: a watch, a camera, a key and a cassette labelled Oxford. References to the Bodleian Libraries and the Ashmolean give the dense arrangement a recognisable local character.

Muted blues, charcoal and warm paper tones are punctuated by bright yellow and green. The contrast between the strong skyline and the many smaller details gives the eye a clear structure to follow, while leaving plenty to discover.

The interest lies in how those elements work together. Drawing instruments echo the architecture’s geometry; shelves of books give weight to the lower edge; scattered objects interrupt the buildings with moments of humour and curiosity. For a collector with a connection to Oxford, these details offer several points of recognition. Seen as a whole, the composition reads as a city. Seen closely, it becomes a collection of discoveries, a fitting way to evoke a place so closely associated with learning and imagination.

The work is presented framed.