Spirits of Beauty and Grace

William Oxer

“William Oxer is not merely a painter; he is a distinctive sensibility, with a poetic vision... His art is affirmative, evocative and forgiving.”

Professor Sir Roger Scruton

A passionate artist driven by traditional ideas of how beauty should be represented, William formed the intellectual basis to his work under the tutelage of Professor Regius Peter Davidson of Oxford University.

William travelled widely through Europe with Peter and his wife, Professor Jane Stevenson, effectively being given a Grand Tour as a fair swap for his driving skills. After graduating, William was offered a place at the Prince of Wales' Institute of Architecture but was advised instead to take the position of assistant to Alec Cobbe, artist, restorer and collector.

William lived at Hatchlands for approximately eight months, working with Cobbe. During that time, he assisted on projects including an exhibition for the Queens Gallery, Buckingham Palace and large-scale designs for interiors in historic houses such as Goodwood House, Petworth House and Hatchlands Park.

Over the past 25 years, William has undertaken regular portrait commissions for private clients and produced artworks for exhibitions and collectors across the globe. Other achievements include period decoration and exhibition design in places such as Christie’s and the Building of Bath Museum, also known as The Museum of Bath Architecture.

Discussing his chosen angle as an artist, William says:

“I am perhaps something of an old soul. My works are restful and somehow quiet, demure, elegiac. I enjoy the evenings of autumn and winter by the fire, painting smaller, more intimate and reflective works. Perhaps this is a distant feeling of past roots of the north.”

In 2017, William was approached by the Royal Society of Arts to be made a

Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts (FRSA), an award granted to individuals whom the RSA judges to have contributed outstanding work to the Arts, Manufactures, and Commerce.

Sabine Oecking

Sabine Oecking was born in Munich Germany, where her artist father and goldsmith mother ensured she grew up surrounded by art.  After many years focused mainly on figurative paintings, she began experimenting with colour and abstract art.

Sabine began pursuing art full time in 2013. Based at her studio in Dortmund, Germany, she developed her work in the following years, studying with Professor Adam Jankowski of the Offenbach University of Art & Design.

Sabine says of her painting:

"The main theme of my work is luck and happiness. I have developed my own style with spray paint, ink, and sometimes acrylic paints. I want to capture and preserve happy moments, create positive atmosphere and to make this moment last.

I am deeply interested in the emotional response to my work and how it's being perceived by the audience.

My series, ‘Happiness and Life’ is the reflection of life being organised, sorted and controlled versus the chaotic, organic and unorganised. It is from these pairs of opposites that all world manifestations spring, creating real harmony. Human existence is imperfect and sometimes uncontrollable. It is hard to handle those things we never wanted, expected or desired to happen to our lives, but they may turn out to be a real blessing. At the end, imperfections, scars and all our failures make us even more special."