In the Bleak Midwinter Christmas cards

Pack size: 6

Card materials: 300gsm hammer textured card

Envelope: white, hammer textured, gummed, 130 x 130mm, letter size (UK) 

Cover message: blank

Inside message: blank

More about the designs

Matthews painted this image as the cover art for a collaborative music project - a new arrangement of the much loved Christmas carol 'In the Bleak Midwinter' - with keyboardist and composer Oliver Wakeman.  Painting to the lyrics, Midwinter was very obviously going to be a snow scene, but of all the snow images Matthews has produced, this is the only one that actually depicts snowfall!  He chose a medieval setting, with a village and a towering church building. Remembering his trips to Scotland with his Scottish wife Sarah, he decided the creatures in this wintry scene would be a couple of "Heilan coos" - that's "Highland cows" to the rest of us.  Of course in true Matthews style there are a couple of twists - the horns are slightly exaggerated with barbs, and the heavy tails would in reality belong to yaks.