At this year’s London Craft Week (12–18 May 2025), Rolls-Royce Motor Cars is bringing a captivating artistic display that reimagines the British countryside in exquisite detail and craftsmanship.
Created by artisans at the marque’s Goodwood headquarters, the triptych artwork draws on the flora and fauna of the British Isles, presenting a woodland scene across three evocative moments: day, evening, and night. The centrepiece is a kingfisher, depicted in each panel using a range of complex techniques, transforming leather, wood, metal and thread into an immersive natural tableau.
Chloe Dowsett, Bespoke Specialist at Rolls-Royce, explained the concept behind the triptych. “We wanted the three panels to talk to each other, to be connected,” Chloe explained. “The reeds at the bottom of the first panel, which are made of metal, in rusty red and mandarin orange, are matched in the second panel with grasses in leather dyed in similar hues.”
Paul Ferris, also a Bespoke Specialist at the marque, gave further details about the cohesive nature of the artwork. “For the first time we had the chance to create something that had nothing to do with cars, but using our specialised knowledge which requires all decorative elements in a car to come together for the customer.”
An example of that expertise applied to the triptych is the tree in the third panel and the fox, which showcase the mastery and artistry of the artisans at Rolls-Royce when it comes to marquetry, embroidery and experimenting with colour. Hanging from a metal tree overlaid with marquetry overflowing from this panel, in the central one, we find a squirrel with a bushy tail made of sewing thread, while the fox, is a master lesson in the art of inlaying pieces of veneer onto a surface to create intricate and delicate patterns.
The centrepiece of Rolls-Royce’s exhibition piece at London Craft Week 2025 is a kingfisher, a bird that is considered a “royal icon” and a sign of success. Their presence is a positive indicator of clean water and a thriving environment.
The first section, dubbed “Swan Lake,” comes from Rolls-Royce’s Exterior Surface Centre. Over 100 painstaking hours went into recreating a lakeside habitat, with a pair of swans drifting across the water and a kingfisher hovering above. Artisans employed freehand brushwork alongside airbrushing and basecoat manipulation, even cutting and painting aluminium reeds to mimic the shimmer of morning dew.
As evening sets in, the “Enchanted Woodland” section – the work of the Interior Trim Centre – takes over. Here, more than 400 hours of labour went into transforming leather into a lively forest floor. Daisies are delicately hand-painted, while robust plants spring to life through layered three-dimensional embroidery. Wildlife familiar to the British woodland – a hare with elongated ears, a tufted squirrel with its signature bushy tail – emerge through a mix of painting and tufting techniques that give the scenes striking texture and depth.
The Enchanted Woodland section of the triptych brings to life animals commonly found in the British countryside, such as the hare.
The final piece, “Stealth After Dark,” is arguably the most intricate. Specialists from the Interior Surface Centre dedicated over 500 hours to cutting, pressing, and arranging tessellated wood veneer pieces that capture the stillness of the forest at night. A fox, rendered through marquetry prowls through the undergrowth. In a first for the marque, artisans experimented with painted veneers, tinting the wood just enough to capture the fox’s reddish coat while preserving the natural grain beneath.
In “Stealth After Dark”, Rolls-Royce’s artisans trialled painted veneers to better represent the reddish hue of the fox’s fur and its white-tipped tail.
The triptych will be on display at Rolls-Royce’s flagship London showroom on Berkeley Street, Mayfair, for the duration of London Craft Week. It’s a rare public glimpse into the craftsmanship typically hidden behind the closed doors of bespoke luxury motoring — and a celebration of artistry that bridges the worlds of nature, tradition, and cutting-edge design.
Author: Julia Pasarón
