A Countryside Alliance Christmas: meet the artists

This year's wonderful collection of Christmas cards and our 2021 calendar are available to buy now.

Don't miss out on your chance to buy our fantastic Christmas cards. Featuring eight stunning pieces of art designed by renowned and young artists, you can support the Countryside Alliance and send a bit of cheer around the country. Our Christmas cards and 2021 Calendar are available to buy here.

Here's a bit more about this year's artitsts.

MILO BROWNE
Although now based in London, 25-year-old Milo Browne was brought up in rural Wiltshire, surrounded by animals. He says of his education: "I am highly dyslexic, and found education and school very tough. However, my fascination with and passion for drawing and portraiture, which I loved from an early age, was hugely helpful for my confidence and self-esteem." A self-taught artist who favours charcoal land pastels as his mediums, Milo turned professional in January of this year. Today, he favours dogs and horses as subject matters, but is keen to develop his work and would love to do more British and African wildlife – he recently raised more than £2,500 for the NHS Trust St George's Tooting A & E department, as well as the Borana Conservancy in Kenya, by selling raffle tickets for the fantastic prize of his drawing of a rhino. Something that sets Milo apart from many artists is the fact that he is colourblind, which he says, "can sometimes be frustrating, but I have come to see it as a strength. I see colour and tone in a unique way."

ZOË CARMICHAEL
Zoë can always be found carrying her watercolour art bag, and doesn't remember a time when she didn't paint. Notable inspirations were Thelwell and the animals she grew up around in Gloucestershire, which she says were "always so full of charm and character. Who needs Netflix when you have animals?" She grew up with The Pony Club, then evented to 4* level with Bertie, "my trusty (most of the time) steed of 15 years. Now, I love hunting and the last few seasons I hunted with the Teme Valley on Smurf, had an epic few days with the Galway Blazers with Echo the stallion, and also the Heythrop with the superstar Rupert." She likes humour to run through her paintings and illustrations, and her watercolours have featured in the National Portrait Gallery. Her aim with this year's Christmas Card is to bring some cheer to everyone. She explains: "It is not an easy time at all, but hopefully all of the countryside animals on a zoom call will help lighten the mood. We have all had to put up with so many dysfunctional Zoom calls and mute mishaps…!"

CLARE BROWNLOW
Clare is a globally renowned artist with a unique style of painting whereby she uses pheasant tail feathers to create energetic and vibrant wildlife images. She grew up surrounded and inspired by all things wildlife and fieldsports. She has also fished all over the UK and abroad. As a youngster she was one of the only girls with a peg on shoot days that she went to. Now, however, she is more often found on the peg teaching and loading for her two sons, aged nine and 11. She and her sporting agent husband Charlie are dedicated to giving them a rounded education in all things conservation, wildlife and fieldsports.

KEITH SYKES
Lancashire-born and based artist Keith has been professionally portraying gundogs and horses for more than 40 years. His portfolio also includes British wildlife, often with a sporting slant, as well as an increasing number of wild boar and African subjects that now feature in his exhibition work. From a young age, Keith shared his father's interests in shooting, wildfowling, rough shooting and clay pigeons as well as target rifle and pistol shooting; he also enjoys game shooting and occasional stalking.

CHARLES CHURCH
Charles is an internationally renowned painter of horses, landscapes and country life. Brought up in Northumberland, he quickly became recognised as a talented equestrian artist and in his mid-20s he was apprenticed for more than two years in an atelier in Florence, training in Old Master techniques and portraiture. In the foreword to his most recent exhibition Further Afield, Henry Wyndham, Chairman of Sotheby's Europe, wrote of a talent which "carries many of the hallmarks of some of the most renowned British painters of the early 20th century." Great British, his previous exhibition in 2005, was a critically acclaimed sell-out, prompting HRH the Prince of Wales to write of the artist's "unique sensitivity and profound understanding of his subject matter." He lives in Dorset and divides his time between portraits and scenes of hunting and racing, as well as painting landscapes.

DEBBIE HARRIS
Horses and hounds have always inspired painter Debbie Harris. She grew up with dogs and ponies, but rarely did hats or saddles feature, and she was always being bucked off. Needless to say, it was a childhood that fed her imagination. Fascinated by form, muscle tone and texture, it is hardly surprising that these are Debbie's main subject matter. Her favoured medium is oil, and she prefers working from her own sketches and photographs, however in the instance of Snow Days Debbie used a photograph reference from Penny Fillingham: "It has the lovely play of light I so enjoy."

MICHELLE MCCULLAGH
Michelle lives and works from her studio at home in North Dorset. For as long as she can remember, she has been drawing and painting animals, saying: "I am lucky enough to surround myself with a menagerie of animals, as well as two delightful children who are already showing a keen interest in drawing!" Drawing from life is Michelle's passion and from these drawings, and the experiences that go with them, ideas evolve. "My oil paintings of horses are simple and dramatic where less marks show more movement, as opposed to a photograph that can show every detail. Painting horses must be my greatest love."

CHARLES JARDINE
Coming from a family of artists, all Charles can remember are brushes, fly rods and capturing fish, fishers and rivers. And seeing the funny side of life. Hardly surprising, then, that he ended up drawing from all of those experiences and producing his much-loved cartoons. Charles will be well known to Countryside Alliance members as the champion for his Fishing 4 Schools campaign, which has been a passion ever since he founded it in 2007 and which will be the recipient of all proceeds from sales of his cards.

This article first appeared in the Autumn 2020 issue of My Countryside Magazine.