When did having ‘your 5 a day’ become a mantra, likewise your 10,000 steps? They’re all just ideas in the public consciousness that are just out there, and maybe we adjust our behaviour a little because we are aware that this is something we all SHOULD be doing. I think it’s time for new one to launch into the ether and it’s 5 human interactions a day Though it may need a snappier title. How about ‘Hi -5!’?? Human Interactions x 5. Any suggestions? It is becoming so very easy to spend days at a time without any kind of…

I had a lovely end to last week. The ‘Cragg Vale’ painting (in my last blog) sold last week and will be shipped to Houston, Texas in the New Year! Exciting to be so well travelled… I love to know where my paintings go, and they were such nice people. So, after I’d stayed very local in the coldest winter months (though it’s the darkness I mind more than the cold), my friend Nancyann dragged me out to see her bits of Calderdale. After painting Akroydon a few years ago, I knew of Edward Akroyd’s other model village at Copley:…

And it was lovely! Thank you to everyone that came along on Friday 28th June. Filling that big hall with work has given me sleepless nights. Pictures that seem vast in my studio diminish in size as they are carried up the Museum’s grand staircase. But it did all fit, and I have to say that I was very proud of how it’s all come together. It’s years worth of work, pretty much. I was sat by Lake Annecy last July, with a notebook drawing out a plan. A plan that began with a map! We were all sat around…

At the end of June this year I shall be holding a new exhibition at Bankfield Museum in Halifax. I was invited as part of ‘Culturdale’ – a celebration of all things Calderdale. We played around with all sorts of titles and themes. ‘The Industrialists’ – too formal. Too much about what’s gone. ‘Legacy’ – was met with much scoffing. “Too much mentioned in wills”. I was trying to come up with a title that was unique to Calderdale and what shaped it. One day I jokingly said “Okay – how about ‘Engineers and Chocolatiers”. That’s all the mills, all…

I don’t know what happened this year. I’m usually so ready for my children to be back at school – mainly because I’m panicking about the jobs that are piling up, and I’m quite ready for some quiet creative time. Maybe they’re older and easier, need less organising. They definitely help more. They are so interesting! Anyway – for the first time, I’ve not quite wanted summer to end. We had some great adventures in ‘Henri’ – our camper van. Henri is new to us and we’re new at campervaning, so this was a bit of a major maiden voyage….

I’m not going to lie; I almost bit off more than I could chew with this exhibition. Turns out that there are A LOT of letters in the alphabet. I got to letter 12 and said to myself “I don’t think you’ve thought this through…”. But I did it. I even did an ‘X’! I’ve displayed them framed all together and on little clipboards at Heart Gallery (they can be bought as the full set, or individually). You can see the individual letters here. The very last painting I completed before my final trip to the framers was this one:…

I’m counting down the weeks now until my exhibition – ‘HOME’ opens at Heart Gallery in Hebden Bridge. Painting these has got me through the darker winter months which always seem hard in the valley. It’s been good seek beautiful things here; a bit of colour maybe in the more monochromatic months. A reason to head up hill in search of a bit of light! ‘Winter Washing’ Heptonstall. Inks, gouache, watercolour, acrylic, gold leaf and gold thread. It’s been a decade since I began exhibiting at Heart Gallery. Five years since the ‘Craggs and Fells’ exhibition. This time it’s been…

It’s far too long since I last did this! I’m sorry – I’m always someone who’d rather be getting painty hands than sitting in front of a computer. Consequestly this will be a Christmas and everything else I’ve been doing, all at once kind of Blog post… I didn’t take part in the Hebden Makes Christmas event this weekend. It clashed with the twin’s birthday and I am no good at being two people at once. I either need to be all Mummy, or all work, and I didn’t want to short change them. Instead we went to see The…

For Christmas this year my Dad bought me a beautiful book of Eric Ravillious Wood Engravings… Dad and I are both huge Ravillious fans, but the book of little engravings were a revelation. Above are my favourite three: I love the tiny, styalised perfection of them! I’ve long wanted to get back to some kind of proper, formal print making. As a textile deigner I did all sorts of silk screen and block printing at college – I loved it all. But once you set up on your own, print making can be quite a tricky thing to access, so…