How artist Phoebe Dickinson celebrates Christmas in her Gloucestershire farmhouse

The couple knew they wanted to be near Phoebe’s mother and father in Gloucestershire. Her parents still live in the house (featured in House & Garden in December 2006) that Phoebe grew up in alongside Octavia and Milo, their brother. Their father is the art dealer Simon Dickinson and Milo recently joined him at Dickinson, his gallery in St James’s. Other specifications included an element of remoteness – ‘we didn’t want to live in a village,’ Phoebe says – and an outbuilding suitable for conversion into a studio. Little was initially forthcoming: ‘Then the estate agent said he thought there was something coming onto the market soon, which belonged to another art dealer. He wouldn’t tell us what it was, though, or whose it was.’ By a process of elimination, Phoebe and her father worked out that it was the house owned by Old Master print dealer Adrian Eeles and his wife Lucretia, who had lived there for 40 years. They immediately invited themselves round and bonded over art and books – and the sale was agreed.

It was not seamless, with Covid and lockdowns creating hurdles and delays. ‘We all cried with relief when the contracts were finally signed,’ Octavia recalls. Laughing in mock jealousy, she says that she is ‘almost over’ Phoebe acquiring the house that they both dreamed of owning: she and her husband Harry are also now living in the area.

Phoebe and Luke moved in over a whirlwind two days, thanks to the family’s unpacking practice. ‘Every time any of us move, everyone in the family, including our cousins, descends to help. We each have different responsibilities – my father hangs the pictures, Octavia styles every room and our mothers unpack the kitchen. The bonus is that we all know where to find everything in each other’s homes,’ says Phoebe. The house itself aided their speedy settling in. ‘It barely needed anything doing to it because Adrian and Lucretia had looked after it so well,’ says Phoebe. Gradually, however, with Octavia’s help, changes are being implemented. A sofa is reupholstered, a room repainted, a carpet replaced – and insulating the whole house is firmly near the top of the list. ‘The pipes tend to freeze rather too often,’ observes Luke wryly.

Phoebe’s new studio – ‘larger than I dared hope’ – is in an outbuilding across from the kitchen, once Adrian’s library. It has enabled her to work on multiple paintings at once. A year ago, she started a new series of pieces inspired by the historic houses she often finds herself working in, as well as the 19th- and early-20th-century interiors paintings by John Singer Sargent, Francis Campbell Boileau Cadell, John Lavery and Herbert James Gunn. Gunn’s painting of George VI, Queen Elizabeth and the young Princesses, Elizabeth and Margaret, having tea in the Royal Lodge hangs in the National Portrait Gallery.

‘It’s about capturing the less formal life in these extraordinary houses,’ Phoebe explains, reeling off a list that includes Belvoir Castle, Houghton Hall, Biddick Hall and Castle Howard. She has also been capturing the gardens along with ‘some less grand, equally appealing examples, such as my parents’ garden, and several that I’ve found on Instagram and love’. These she paints en plein air, which can be tricky: ‘You have only a two-hour window before the light changes, though I sometimes go back for more “sittings”. It’s so peaceful and the gardens are so magical; those days have held some of my favourite moments.’ The paintings – interiors and gardens – are being exhibited at Dickinson this month in a grand salon-like setting created by Octavia with furniture upholstered in her fabrics.

There are further outbuildings beyond Phoebe’s studio– one co-opted by Luke for his burgeoning online art dealership and picture-framing business. The Holwell Collection, which he set up after their move, runs alongside his work as a filmmaker. ‘It originated from framing Phoebe’s art and discovering what an impact the right frame has,’ he says, pulling out a mix of 17th- and 18th century examples that he has bought at auction or in antique shops. He holds them up beside the excellent contemporary reproduction frames he has had hand-carved and gilded by Cotswold craftsmen, making them virtually indistinguishable from the originals. ‘Phoebe often chooses the frame before she starts painting, because it’s not always easy to cut down beautifully carved antique frames,’ he says, pointing out that both are for sale. ‘The reproductions mean we can size a frame to a particular work.’ This includes the charming paintings Luke buys to sell on (an online exhibition is taking place before Christmas). ‘There’s no real theme. I buy what I like, including modern British and Old Masters. I’m lucky that, if I find something I think is interesting, Simon and Milo are there to help with their expertise.’

Luke’s adventures round regional auction rooms have also turned up ‘all sorts of columns and statues for the garden’, says Phoebe. ‘We were inspired by the garden of Iford Manor in Wiltshire, which I’ve painted.’ Similarly, they recently installed a ‘temple garden’ just beyond her studio, the idea for which came from gardens designed by Julian and Isabel Bannerman, including Highgrove.