DRAWING & PAINTING COURSES
OUR CALENDAR OF EVENTS 2026
We are very excited to welcome you to Ham Court - come and visit the garden during our Open Garden days, book a watercolour course or join us for supper at one of our Private View & Supper evenings.
ORIGINAL PAINTINGS
Courgette
Original watercolour on paper. 2025
Part of a series of watercolour paintings by Matthew Rice for 75 at Liberty.
Framed Artwork
1m x 1m approx.
Artwork will be exhibited in Liberty until the end of September and can be shipped then.
Chard
Original watercolour on paper. 2025
Part of a series of watercolour paintings by Matthew Rice for 75 at Liberty.
A2 size. Unframed
Artwork will be exhibited in Liberty until the end of September and can be shipped then.
Leek
Original watercolour on paper. 2025
Part of a series of watercolour paintings by Matthew Rice for 75 at Liberty.
A2 size. Unframed
Artwork will be exhibited in Liberty until the end of September and can be shipped then.
Artichoke 2
Original watercolour on paper. 2025
Part of a series of watercolour paintings by Matthew Rice for 75 at Liberty.
Unframed
1m x 1m approx.
Artwork will be exhibited in Liberty until the end of September and can be shipped then.
Price includes packaging and postage, please add Name and short message for book signing at checkout.
Learning to draw needn't be complicated or expensive, nor does one need a particularly spectacular subject to draw.
In this, his first practical art book, artist Matthew Rice encourages readers to look at and draw the scenes around them - the desk they are sitting at, the view out the window, a bowl of produce from the supermarket. And it is by truly sitting with and engaging with our everyday world that drawing skills can be learnt and strengthened, confidence built, and a new mindful creative activity developed.
A bunch of spring onions can be a starting point when thinking about shading and form. The view from your kitchen window becomes an exercise in perspective and measuring lines. A vase full of flowers is the perfect subject to develop your skills in detailed drawing and three-dimensional structure.
Little by little, by following the ten step-by-step exercises in the book, readers will build the skills and techniques to approach drawing any scene with confidence and ease.
"To know how to draw, you need to think about how to look, because to draw is to look and report in on what you have seen. As we learn to draw better we also learn to understand better: to analyze, explore and comprehend our world and its inhabitants. The exercise is more than an expression of a desire to decorate, to kill time or amuse. It is in fact a vital and near universal mode of communication that allows us to speak to those with whom we share no other common language." - Matthew Rice
BOOKS
*Please note this book will be published on 24th September 2026 and will be sent out then*
Price includes packaging and postage, please add Name and short message for book signing at checkout.
In 2012, Matthew Rice bought Ham Court, an estate in the village of Bampton in the Cotswolds. Spread across several acres and surrounding fragments of the medieval Bampton Castle, the garden includes an orchard, paddock, productive greenhouse and small farmyard, all of which shape the rhythm of life throughout the year.
In A Year in the Garden, Matthew documents a typical year spent at Ham Court. He writes about the daily work of gardening – the planning, planting, harvesting and inevitable setbacks – alongside personal anecdotes, practical advice and recipes that make the most of seasonal produce. While the setting is distinctive, the challenges and pleasures he encounters are those shared by gardeners everywhere.
The book is complete with Matthew Rice’s distinctive illustrations, capturing the atmosphere and details of garden life.
A Year in the Garden is both a useful companion and a book to savour, offering encouragement, inspiration and hard‑won wisdom to return to throughout the year.
Price includes packaging and postage, please add Name and short message for book signing at checkout.
This beautifully illustrated book covers the grammar and vocabulary of British buildings, explaining the evolution of styles from Norman castles to Norman Foster. Its aim is to enable the reader to recognise, understand and date any British building.
As Matthew Rice says, 'Once you can speak any language, conversation can begin, but without it communications can only be brief and brutish. The same is the case with Architecture: an inability to describe the component parts of a building leaves one tongue-tied and unable to begin to discuss what is or is not exciting, dull or peculiar about it.' With this book in your hand, buildings will break down beguilingly into their component parts, ready for inspection and discussion. There will be no more references to 'that curly bit on top of the thing with the square protrusions'. Fluent in the world of volutes, hood moulds, lobed architraves and bucrania, you will be able to leave a cathedral or country house with as much to talk about as a film or play.
Complete with over 400 exquisite watercolour illustrations and hand-drawn annotations, this is a joyous celebration of British buildings and will allow you to observe and describe the world around you afresh.
Please note that this is a new edition of the Architectural Primer book.
Dimensions: 18cm x 2cm x 25cm
Items are processed on a weekly basis
Price includes packaging and postage, please add Name and short message for book signing at checkout.
Matthew Rice is a long-time observer and illustrator of cities, buildings and all those who inhabit them, with an uncanny ability to express the energy of a place through a few lines of ink and splashes of paint. For years, Venice has been a source of deep creative inspiration for him; and now, in Venice: A Sketchbook Guide, he captures the highlights of this most beguiling of Italian cities.
Unsurprisingly, given his abiding passion for architecture, Matthew provides a wealth of information about the 'stones' of Venice, including an illustrated guide to the main building styles of the city - Byzantine, Gothic, Renaissance, Baroque and Modern - and exemplars of its balconies, bridges and campaniles. Further sections explore the city's sestieri - its six residential quarters - as well as its history, paintings, festivals, wildlife and, not least, its cicchetti and aperitivi.
Following the same landscape format as Matthew's real-life sketchbooks, Venice: A Sketchbook Guide will combine enchanting watercolour illustrations with an informed, personal and witty text, and promises to delight all visitors to Venice, armchair or actual.
Dimensions: 13.5cm x 2cm x 20cm
See also, Rome: A Sketchbook
Items are processed on a weekly basis
