Kate Lycett

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:

Of all the new pieces it was probably the first one I planned, and that would have been several years ago. I love the way that these three features line up perfectly as you decend the path from Pecket Well: Stoodley Pike, Heptonstall Church, Pecket Well Monument (often called Little Stoodley (or ‘Steve Pike’ by my daughter one day in the back of the car who announced that it was Stoodley’s little brother)). It’s a view I know so well and in all seasons. There was a particular light and a particular season I wanted to catch so I kept having to go back there to check how spring was progressing. Spring comes later to the tops than the valley bottom in some places, so the hawthorne was almost over on one side of the valley and only just emerging up there. The goldfinches were a bonus though. I love the way goldfinches chatter; it’s like they’re gossiping.

The painting sold first at the Private View at the gallery on May 11th, though it will stay on the wall for a while yet. I met the people that bought it; it’s important to know that favourite pictures are going to nice people! I’d grown very attached to this one.

One of the first paintings I started was this one of the bridge and the waterfall in Nutclough woods.

I kept going back to the woods with this piece. And it’s quite big, so it wasn’t easy! I don’t usually paint outside but I needed to see this one in situ because I couldn’t get the intensity of colour quite right. The scene is so rich in colour: the coppers so deep and that bright green almost yellow. Someone at the exhibition said they could see the wind in the trees and I loved that!

My friend Nancyann says that this painting is like a great big lung full!

It’s the descent from Stoodley Pike via Swillington. The Skylarks round here are one of the earliest signs of spring coming. They start at the end of February and they get louder until June. Right now the grasses on the moors are full of them and on the Swillington path they swoop low from one side to the other (they nest in the tussocks). As an incomer, cottongrass always excites me. It’s like stars, or snow! It’s beautiful. These two things are particularly synonymous with Erringdon Moor and the Pike.

The private view for HOME was lovely – thank you to everyone that came! The exhibition runs until the end of July.

Heart gallery is stocking all of the new limited edition giclee prints and wood engraving. From June 11th they will start to be available in other galleries and on line. I do this to try and encourage visitors to the gallery to see the exhibition.