While the Christmas Radiance show celebrates the variety and wonder of Sladers Yard’s artists, the inclusion of work by the recently deceased Hugh Dunford Wood adds a poignant dimension to a fabulous, wide-ranging exhibition.
Passing after a brief illness, Hugh Dunford Wood leaves behind a vibrant legacy with a diverse body of work that includes wallpaper, cushions, jewellery, and even hand-painted men’s ties, alongside his highly regarded radiant landscapes and spirited portraits.
His son Jesse Dunford Wood wrote a short tribute to Hugh : ‘After an overly structured upbringing with military parents and boarding school, Hugh Dunford Wood left it all and worked his whole life as an artist and designer having secured a place at the famed Ruskin School of Art in the 1970s.
He made a good living and brought up a family of four by painting landscapes and portraits alongside a successful fashion business, Dunford Wood Designs, hand-painting brash silk ties with a large team of artists under his direction, collaborating with many famous labels such as Paul Smith, Yoshi Yamamoto and Harrods.
He designed flatware, sculpture, jewellery, fabric and even had a parallel career hand-printing colourful wallpaper, still available with the renowned Hamilton Weston historical wallpaper company.
Alongside his personal work, he held positions throughout his career as artist in Residence at The Royal Shakespeare Company and the Globe Theatre as well as with the Church of England in London.
He has exhibited widely in the UK and abroad with work in the collections of the V&A Museum, in Colleges at the University of Oxford, and many private collections around the world.
In his later years, Hugh developed a series of workshops sharing specific craft skills such as Wallpaper and Textile Printing, and Sketchbook Keeping. He got enormous pleasure from passing on the skills he taught, encouraging confidence in others. He even got a medal from King Charles, who awarded him the President’s Award for Endangered Crafts in the House of Lords.
Hugh has been hugely inspired by the natural world, the natural form, colour and a broad imagination.
He has always sketched, painted and drawn in little cloth-bound books that he has carried with him wherever he was in the world, often gathering attention, crowds and new friends as he observed people with a pencil, pen and brush.
This really was his foundation, his grounding, and his way or relating and connecting with the world. Sketching really fed his appetite and his imagination.
He always loved music from orthodox chanting to freestyle jazz, poetry, novels and films but mostly people—especially younger generations who gave him so much energy and fed him so many ideas.
In a recent interview, Hugh said ‘neither hide nor hoard your talents, but share them, and accrue to them by enquiry with other artists and makers. Celebrate life and remember that the world is full of hosts—there are just not enough guests. So travel, overland, with your sketchbook and not with a camera.’
And this outlook and attitude has taken him on many an adventure throughout his colourful life.’
Hugh Dunford Wood — 1949 – 2025.
Radiance offers visitors an eclectic selection of curated works by artists such as Louise Balaam, Petter Southall, Martyn Brewster, Björk Haraldsdóttir, Vanessa Gardiner, Alfred Stockham, and Howard Phipps.
Radiance is at Sladers Yard, West Bay from Saturday 15th November to Saturday 10th January 2026.
