My special bell painting is a stupendous artwork by Martina Weatherley.
She is an artist with particular experience in painting horn bells.

New! Click here, or on the picture below for a
larger, more detailed version.
Only 100 kilobytes.

...Or click here for an even bigger, printable
one - about half a magabyte.
(It's a really stunning photograph
and worth the couple of minutes
you will have to wait.)

  *******************************************

Click here for a list of
all 17 butterflies and
detailed individual pictures.

The artwork in this bell is permanent memorial to Christopher Giles, a brilliant horn-player and a brilliant friend.

Chris died in August 1975 at the age of 17 by drowning in Loch Lomand, Scotland.

Now, most of my horn playing goes through this memorial bell.

I know he wouldn't have minded because...

he had a great sense of humour.

Chris was also a butterfly collector and natural historian.

There are 17 carefully chosen and accurately painted butterflies in the bell.

The gold-leaf work depicts foliage from the Walnut tree, Junglans niger , which is Chris's memorial tree.
I am very grateful to Jim Reveal for use of his photo of the foliage.

If you would like your bell painted you can call Martina on +44 (0) 1255 507227
...although she might take some persuading - my bell took her about 250 hours to complete.

back to the start page