Vintage Winter Landscape Oil Painting in Snowy Grey and Cream, Signed Dick Summers

Snow has settled over the hills in this vintage oil on board, softening every ridge and field into layers of cream, dove grey and lilac. Dark crags rise along the skyline, a few bare trees huddle together in the middle distance, and a line of old fencing and walls threads across the snowfield in the foreground, the only sign that anyone has been here before you.

The paint is laid on thickly with a palette knife, so the surface is full of ridges and texture that catch the light as you move around the room. Look closely and you'll find little surprises tucked into the snow: a streak of lemon yellow, a fine line of coral, a flash of rust along the walls. It reads as a cold scene from across the room and a surprisingly warm one up close.

It is signed Dick Summers in the lower left corner and was framed at the Heathcliff Gallery in Nailsworth, Gloucestershire, whose label is still on the back. The label gives the gallery's old 0453 telephone code, which tells us it was framed before the mid 1990s. The frame itself is a real part of the charm, a limewashed wood moulding in soft pink with a bright coral slip that picks out the warmer tones hiding in the paint. It measures 53 x 42 cm and comes with hanging wire fitted, ready to hang. The backing board shows some light age spotting around its edges, and the painting itself presents beautifully.

Its muted palette makes it easy to place. Hang it above a white painted mantelpiece with a few pieces of pale stoneware, or in a bedroom alongside linen and soft pink textiles to echo the frame. It also works well as the calm centre of a gallery wall of mixed landscapes, and it really comes into its own through the winter months, with a lamp lit beneath it on a dark afternoon.