Choose unique gifts made locally as Oxfordshire artists host or take part in seasonal events across the county.
The venues below are listed in date order.
You can also enjoy our on-line Autumn-Winter Show and the Christmas Season on-line Art Trail exploring art and artist studios from the warmth of your home.
Emma Coleman-Jones OAS – Dispatches from the Floods: exhibition of drawings from the Thames and Cherwell
Venue: Wolfson College, Oxford
Timing: 10am-7pm (subject to availability – phone to check)
Website: https://www.emmacoleman-jones.co.uk
Date: 6 October to 12 December 2025
Dispatches from the floods: drawings from the Thames & Cherwell
Emma Coleman-Jones
Wolfson College, Oxford, OX2 6UD. Open daily 10am- 7pm. Visitors are advised to phone the college lodge on 01865 274100 before visiting.
Preview: Wed 15th October, 6.30pm. All welcome.
Artist Talk: Thurs 6th November, 6pm. All welcome.
The exhibition in the Levett and Florey Rooms at Wolfson College comprises two recent drawing series made in situ on the floodplains of Oxford’s Thames and Cherwell rivers. Both reflect my core artistic practice of looking, drawing and being fully present in the landscape.
The drawings are presented in the spirit of their creation: completed outside in an opportunistic manner and displayed without subsequent modification in the studio. They represent, therefore, the way the landscape looked and felt to me at that moment in time.
Part I: Drawing in the Floods
Towards the end of 2023, the rising flood waters of the Thames and Cherwell rivers provided a new focus for my daily drawing in Oxford’s parks, meadows and woods. Here, suddenly, were dynamic, fluid landscapes and dramatically altered views of familiar places. As the encroaching floods blurred the boundaries between rivers, fields and paths, the reflective surfaces and ethereal winter light created uniquely atmospheric conditions for drawing.
The flood drawings form a small series, mainly completed in January and February 2024. Twenty charcoal and chalk drawings are displayed here, with additional smaller pieces and sketchbooks also available to view. All were, essentially, serendipitous: unexpected views experienced whilst walking at Port Meadow, Christchurch Meadow, Binsey, University Parks and other locations close to the city.
These quick and instinctive sketches, completed on winter days surrounded by the sight, sound and feel of water, provide both a personal record of the floods and an attempt to capture the ephemeral beauty of time and place.
Part II. A Year on Port Meadow
In late August of 2024, I began a second drawing series, this time across a complete year. Working exclusively on Port Meadow, and always from the same viewpoint – looking towards Binsey from the Aristotle Lane side – this was also, largely, a flood series. The meadow, a floodplain of the Thames, was inundated with water from mid-September to late April, lending an additional, dynamic dimension to the view.
Over the course of the year, I made over ninety small, quick and instinctive sketches of the view across the meadow, with the distinctive Black Poplar tree on the far bank and the hills of Wytham Woods beyond. I worked in all weathers, seasons and times of day and used whichever materials seemed best suited to the moment. The drawings record my impressions of being in this atmospheric part of the local landscape.
Working outside with a great deal of looking but without too much thought or time helps me to capture, quickly, what seems interesting in the moment. I am particularly intrigued by what we notice in a landscape and in things that can capture our attention afresh, even in familiar locations.
Thirty of these drawings are displayed here in the Levett and Florey Rooms, with additional ones being available to view on request. Drawings from each month of the year are included, in order, with time, date and sometimes a brief note.