Shady Cloister 

Shady Cloister was painted by Winston Churchill, using oil paint on canvas. Though he is best known for his political life, Churchill also had a deep appreciation for painting, seeing it as an essential pastime. Looking at the artwork, it's clear that the brushwork is quite vigorous, applied with visible strokes and loaded with pigment, very directly on the canvas. This gives the architecture a kind of sculptural presence; he’s clearly not trying to depict stone in a photorealistic way. Instead, the paint is assertive and present, and it gives the cloister a tangible, weighty quality. Of course, painting was not Churchill's primary occupation. He approached it more as a serious amateur, finding solace and intellectual stimulation in the act of creation. This fact asks us to consider how creative practices outside the traditional art world enrich the artistic landscape. By valuing diverse forms of making, we can understand artworks like this more fully.