Storm over a Bridge in Southern France 

Winston Churchill painted this landscape, Storm over a Bridge in Southern France, using oils on canvas. The inherent qualities of oil paint—its viscosity, its capacity for layering—are here put to expressive use. Notice the thick impasto, especially in the sky, giving the clouds a palpable sense of weight and movement. Churchill wasn’t aiming for photorealism, but rather to capture a fleeting moment, the drama of the approaching storm. The brushwork is loose, almost hurried, which lends the painting a sense of immediacy. Churchill took up painting relatively late in life, yet he understood the particular magic that could be achieved with this medium, one that has deep art historical associations. We might see the application of paint itself as a kind of labor. While Churchill, of course, never wanted for anything, he still appreciated the physicality of the process, and how it could translate an inner vision into tangible form. Ultimately, this painting reminds us that even for a statesman, the act of creation is a powerful way to engage with the world.