I had an exciting meeting at Bankfield this week, about something that’s going to be keeping me busy in the winter months. It’s going to be lovely to be able to hide away in a sea of colour whilst it’s colourless outside. I don’t think I can say too much until it’s all agreed.
It’s half term next week and I want to encourage you to go to Bankfield and see the exhibition while it’s still up! It’s there until Dec 21st, after which many of the paintings will be going to their forever homes, and they’ll never be all together again. Here’s a little blog about the final three of the exhibition:
This one is ‘Luddenden Dean’. I love this view! It always takes my breath away when driving out of Luddenden village and up towards Mount Tabor, but there’s nowhere to stop in the car. In search of perfect Calderdale views I walked from Wainstalls to Mount Tabor, and down a muddy field to Stocks Lane. I was freezing at the top of the hill, and then too warm in this sheltered spot where I stood and drew with my sketchbook resting on a moss covered dry stone wall. It was a spring day where the light moves fast. Different distant hills were being lit up in gold, and turning almost purple dark within half a minute. I love days like this; I think it’s a very Calderdale thing. To the left, in the bright patch, is Oats Royd Mill. Above it, in the far distance, is Stoodley Pike. Towards the right is Booth, with Booth cricket ground just visible through the trees. Behind that is Broadfolds, once the family home of the Murgatroyd family who owned Oats Royd Mill, and most of the Luddenden Valley. Midgley Moor is on the far right.
In starting at one end of the valley with Todmorden, I had to finish my Calderdale Journey with ‘Brighouse’, at the other:
I started at the top of the town at The Smith Art gallery. It was a bright and warm day and the grounds surrounding it were full of wild flowers. The walk back down to the town is flanked by two large churches. The Central Methodist Church on the left, and St Martin’s Church on the right. There’s a lot of artistic licence used to patchwork everything I wanted to include as the town is full of pretty and interesting buildings. So, below the church there’s the old town hall, The Prince of Wales Inn, the Richard Oastler Pub (in an old Methodist Church), a pretty little dry cleaners (which I think was probably once a Picture House). A grand parade of shops that include Harrison Lord Art Gallery and the old Post Office building. The pretty building below is the old Victoria Theatre (now the Calder Pub). Sugden Flour Mills demand to be acknowledged. My children used to love Rokt climbing walls, and I think they’re probably Brighouse’s most distinctive landmark. From the mills I walked along the tow path and out of the town towards Cromwell Bottom nature reserve. It very quickly goes from industrial to quiet green space with the Calder Valley Greenway passing between the River Calder and the Calder and Hebble Navigation. That was quite a revelation to me. I had no idea that Brighouse had so much green!
There’s a funny story about this last one – my Calderdale Map. A bit of insight into the business relationship with my husband!
Daniel and I have been together since 1993. Since school! And he’s been my business partner for 8 years. He returned early from work one day in 2016 announcing (very happily I remember) that he’d been made redundant, and was going to come and work with me. I told him that he certainly wasn’t! That this was my business, and that living and bringing up 3 children together was quite enough without working together as well. He persuaded me to try it for 6 months, and I’d have to admit that it’s worked out pretty well. BUT, we set ground rules, amongst them: NEVER question how much I spend on art materials and books, and NO spread sheets in the studio.
Now this exhibition was a huge undertaking, with less time to do it than was comfortable. We had a few meetings about what was needed, and these had to be in neutral gound (a cafe, so we coudn’t have an argument.). I always have more ideas than time and will get carried away; I will admit that I need reigning in a bit. So he ‘MOSCOW’d’ the project. The MUST haves, the SHOULD haves and the WOULD be nice to haves…. Given the time scale, there was simply not enough time to produce the map. But to me the map was central, and was the thing that I’d planned first, in the summer, sitting by Lake Annecy, whilst planning my year ahead. So I rebelled… I did a little every day and kept it hidden under piles of papers. By the time I revealed it, it was well underway and had to be completed! So the map was my act of rebellion…
It was important because unless you understand the topography of Calderdale, it’s hard to understand why it’s developed as it has. I didn’t understand the shape of the valleys and the rivers until I started to paint it, and to understand that is to understand why industry developed as and where it did. Also – I love the names of things. There’s power in knowing the names of the moors you’re lost on (Soyland Moor, today in the fog) and the rivers you’re being flooded by.
So please – go to Bankfield! It’s a lovely museum. Mr Darcy’s shirt is there, and you have to pass my paintings to find it.