Happy New Year everyone! I just wanted to write a little, positive post, to let you know how things stand in the studio at the moment.

When i locked the studio door at the beginning of the school holidays, I was on a mission to make the very best of this Christmas. My family is large and sociable, and quite spread out, so we always have an epic family get together where the cousins run as a pack, and every meal is a feast, planned right down to the last mince pie.

This year I decided that we would make our own Christmas traditions, and so we set about stealing other peoples that we liked the sound of. There’s the Icelandic tradition of exchanging books and chocolate on Christmas eve – so we did that. I like an excuse to buy lovely books.

I also stole my friend Christina’s tradition of going through the Radio Times with highlighters while sharing a Terry’s Chocolate Orange. Have you noticed that all the traditions so far involve chocolate?

Prior to this I’d also managed to take part in the Winter Solstice Run to Millers Grave on the moors. It was wet, and foggy and there was no sunrise to be had. So we repeated it on the morning of Christmas Eve. It was FREEZING! But so worth it…

And we were very lucky that our lovely walks changed to polar expeditions as Yorkshire came up trumps with Christmas weather!

I’m never a fan of New Year’s Eve, but this year the children were excited because a) we weren’t going to be in a hurry to get them to bed and out of the way and b) they would be saying goodbye to 2020. We had a little ceremony, wrtiting down all the bad bits about the last year, and burning them…

and then we wrote all of our wishes for the year ahead, and the nice bits of 2020 on Amaretti papers, and sent them up. Ever burned Ameretti papers? No one I’ve spoken to knew what I was talking about, so this is to show you what they do:

One of the ‘bad things’ that went into the fire was ‘Home schooling’. And one of the wishes that was sent up was ‘No more home schooling’. There was also ‘A Dog’ and ‘Cuddles with Granny’. I am sorry for the first fail. Crossing my fingers for the second, and very hopeful for the last. All the grandparents have a date that they are aiming for, and as my Mum said, we just have to get our heads down and get through this. There is an end in sight.

Daniel and I have split the week for home school. I will be in the studio Monday – Wednesday. Nancyann – AKA The Studio Fairy – will be in on Thursday and Friday making up parcels and mounting prints. The studio can be completely seperate from the rest of the house so she can be safe, and we can wave at her through the window! Importantly, we can still fulfil orders, though you may have to wait just a little longer. Heart Gallery is continuring to take orders via Totally Locally and I will keep Alison stocked up thoughout this lock-down.

I have lots of beautiful things planned for this year, and I will start posting them soon. 2021 has just go off to a bumpy start, but things will get better.

This morning I unwrapped all the Toffee Town paintings and spread them around the studio. I’m very excited that this exhibition is going to launch at last. Obviously somewhat apprehensive that the plug could be pulled between now and Saturday! I really hope not. They are here and framed. The prints are done. The cards are on their way. NEVER have I been so prepared for an exhibition. Honestly – it’s a little unnerving…

I’ve had a couple of viewings today in my studio, and on Thursday they’ll be off to hang in The Yorkshire Gallery.

These are all paintings inspired by the beautiful architecture of Halifax. And Halifax, because of the Makintosh Factory, was once known as Toffee Town!

Now, because of Covid restrictions, we are unable to have a preview or grand launch with cake and bubbly as we ordinarily would. So the exhibition will just open as The Piece Hall opens at 10am. If you are interested in the paintings then please contact Paul at The Yorkshire Gallery. He is also offering some one to one appointments on Friday 25th September.

Prices and size details of the new paintings are available HERE. Please contat the Yorkshire Gallery to express your interest in the paintings if you unable to come to the gallery.

Please be aware that The Yorkshire Gallery, and the wider Piece Hall are limiting numbers and implementing one way systems through the shops and the walkways to keep everyone safe. Face masks and sanitiser – you know the drill! I shall be there (in my best face mask) to welcome people for the Friday appointments and the Saturday launch. I really hope to see some of you there!

I’m so pleased to be able to finally announce the dates for my postponed ‘Toffee Town’ Exhibition, taking place at The Yorkshire Gallery in Halifax’s beautiful Piece Hall.

This was originally meant to take place much earlier in the year but somewhat disasterous eye surgery pushed the date into May, and Covid delayed it after that. So…

On Saturday 26th September until Sunday 29th November, The Yorkshire Gallery presents…

TOFFEE TOWN

A celebration of the beautiful buildings of Halifax.

Unfortunately, because of Covid restrictions, we can’t do the usual lovely preview, with cake and wine and chatting. The doors will open on Saturday 26th and I shall be in the gallery all day for anyone that wants to say hello! The Yorkshire Gallery is going to offer private view appointments for anyone interested in original works, and pieces will be on sale on-line and on the phone as well as in the gallery. This is not the way it was meant to be! But, between us, Paul and I will endeavor to make everyone happy. I’m really proud of this collection of paintings, and I would love people to come and see them… Here are some of them.

I first visited Halifax as a Textile Design student in 1996. Our tutor took us to Bankfield Museum, from York. Brought up in rural Suffolk, and a student in York, I remember being staggered by this view of the many layers and stunning industrial architecture. It was like nothing I’d seen before.

Crossley Heath Grammar School in Halifax, the air heavy with an expected thunder storm. My daughter set her heart on going there, mostly because it looked like Hogwarts.

There are two paintings in this exhibition where the mood changed dramatically half way through. Originally a fine day, but whilst painting it (this one took months!) I saw Saville Park with a spectaculary bruised sky and decided to emphasise the gothic! Even more Hogwarts now…

Sometimes, paintings decide for themselves, and this was one of those. I was commissioned by Shibden Hall to create a painting of the house for permanent display there. I designed two pieces, and this is the one that they didn’t choose. Standing on the wall in front of the orchard, looking down on the hall I had the idea of a birds eye view. I began the painting in Autumn 2019, and it began as an autumn scene. But the atmosphere wasn’t right – I couldn’t get the light and I left it for months, half done. Then one day in March I stepped out of my house on what felt like the first proper spring day. There was a beautiful clean, blue light, and birdsong, and the first, sappy greens. Back in the studio the painting decided to be spring, and with that came the idea that it should be all about the birds. The crows and the doves are there to represent Ann Lister and Anne Walker – a suggestion made for the Shibden Hall commission. The row along the bottom are all the birds in the stained glass fragments from the window in the main hall (believed originally to have come from local priories after the dissolution of the monasteries). I don’t know their symbolism, though have been told that the figure with the fish under his arm is the devil making off with someone’s soul!

The hidden blackbird in the corner is the one from my garden that day, singing about spring…

I painted this in Lockdown, when the idea of travelling as far as Halifax from Hebden Bridge seemed somewhat exotic! I think that’s why it’s taken on an Italian look – like a sun drenched Venetian Piazza. I have always loved the idea of hidden spaces. As a student I worked in a restaurant and behind the kitchens was an abandoned ballroom, complete with a piano that couldn’t be reached because of the rotten floor.

I was told about the Streets in the Sky years ago, and finally managed to visit them in Autumn of 2019. Beside one of the grand wrought iron gateways into Halifax’s beautiful Borough Market, there is an unremarkable door leading to one of two secret streets of houses located above the market building. Built originally for the owners of the market stalls beneath, they are now almost all uninhabited, but there are plans to renovate them and use them again. The view here is largely imagined; higher than the hidden streets, looking down on The Piece Hall, Halifax Minster, the chocolate factory (now Nestle, but before that Rowntree Mackintosh), and arches of the railway, then beyond up to Beacon Hill.

If you would like more information then please either contact Paul at The Yorkshire Gallery or contact me directly.

Yesterday there were two announcements made about BIG things in my calendar: Art in the Pen in Skipton was officially cancelled and replaced by a virtual event. And Hebden Bridge Open Studios was further postponed to become another virtual event in October. I quite understand the need for both, but still…

It’s all rather late notice, but I was thinking of marking the original weekend of Hebden Bridge Open Studios (which should’ve been this coming weekend (July 3^rd, 4^th and 5^th). If you would like to visit my studio in Hebden Bridge on Saturday (4^th July) or Sunday (5^th July) then I will be making available 6 x ½ hour time slots available on each day. Those of you have visited before will know that my studio is not large, so I think a maximun of two (from a shared household or a bubble (you know the drill)) per slot. I’ll have plastic gloves so people can browse through prints and books etc, as well as hand sanitiser. I don’t have anything like the screens in place in most shops, so I will wear a mask if you would like me to. I have the facility for card payments. And I will give myself time between visitors to clean around. IF the weather turns out fine then I will do as much as I can in the courtyard. Visitors can come and go through the back, so there is no need to come through the house.

My studio will be much more of a working space than is usually seen at Open Studios. And I’d love to show you work I have been busy with during lock-down. I have here both the new paintings for “Toffee Town” (which will now be taking place in the Autumn at The Yorkshire Gallery in The Piece Hall), and all the paintings for my Nightingale project. The lovely Heart Gallery on Market Street, who stock a great range of my work, also re-opens July 4^th and they are only a few minutes walk fro my house.

I will be having my annual plan chest clear out! Mini-printers proofs / seconds / small original works, etc will intially be available for the timed slot visitors, after which they will be available on line for 48 hours.

Please message me or email me if you would like to arrange a visit and I will try to work it all out so that it can all be safely managed.

I apologise in advance for this. It’s going to be a long and rambling post. This has kind of been a long and rambling time. Very odd….

That first week of Lock Down I was woken very early by a Nightingale. It was about 4.30 or so; before the other birds were singing. It wasn’t like anything I’d heard before. Now I do realise that a Nightingale so far north is unusual and the first thing my Dad said when I told him was that it must have been a Blackbird or a Robin. But I hear those all the time and, beautifully though they sing, they were nothing like this. I heard my Nightingale several times more in the next few weeks. Always early. One morning I woke Hattie up so she could listen too. She is so used to be woken up through the night for blood tests, and to be force fed sugar tabs, but she was unusually chipper once she realised that she was being woken up for something nice.

With the somewhat startling realisation that we were going to have to home school our children until the end of the summer term, the weeks stretched formidably ahead. How would we manage? How would we make weekends feel like weekends and holidays feel different to term time? How could I maintain something of my creative self and still make this time something special for them? Time is precious and I wasn’t going to waste this. I’m a bit ‘Polyanna’ by nature and I wanted them to look back on this as a magical time when we were all together, their parents were less distracted by work and we made the most of what we had.

The first day of lock-down I took them all running early. It was cold! Not wet, but fairly bleak and I made them run up hills towards (not all the way to) Stoodley Pike. By day three the votes were for walking, not running, and we found a new path and discovered our new favourite wood, complete with stepping stones, climbing trees and a big flat rock perfectly suited to picnics and brew stops. They climbed and I sat, lovely early evening light breaking through almost naked trees, and I thought: if we can do just this every day, this will be enough. I want us to sit and listen. To identify the birds we can hear and the trees as they wake up for spring. And I’m selfish. I needed something for me too, so I had the idea of collecting trees.

Initially I imagined that I would collect one on every walk, but our routes were often the same so a new one didn’t present itself every time we went out. And some trees that were remarkable in March, were hidden in May. And May trees budded and blossomed, or opened silver leaves in a canopy of darker greens.

I had good intentions of keeping a diary of our daily adventures, but so often days were the same. Not in a dull way, but the walks were repeated. Instead, what I’d come away with was a list…

That the birds and flowers have made a come back is something everyone has noticed. The beautiful weather has made for a stunning spring, with bluebells, wild garlic and yellow and orange poppies all out together. But we’ve really started noticing things for the first time. My kids just casually know ‘stuff’ about their world that they didn’t know in early March:

• That what crunches under your feet in the woods are beech nut shells.
• That Curlew calls sound sad.
• That Skylarks sing while they hover above you.
• That Woodpigeons sound like camping holidays.
• That Green Woodpeckers laugh (though we’ve never spotted one).
• How to tell the difference between a crow, a rook and a raven.
• Mother Ducks are feckless parents.

My lists were as often from my solitary runs as from family walks. I can get further, and I can get out earlier when I run.

When Covid 19 began to be talked about as something other than a far away problem, I was lucky enough to be on holiday with my family in Madeira. While I was there I was emailed by a customer about one of my prints. This one:

The lady told me how it reminded her of Persian miniatures and I began to look at Tree of Life paintings, and motifs on Persian rugs. Each is a little world – a shrine almost – in which all varieties of leaves, flowers, animals and birds, centre around one tree. In the evenings (UNO and Portuguese telly thoroughly exhausted) I doodled ideas: trees with Yorkshire animals, some framed within the spaces of bridges or the arches of viaducts.

My scruffy notebooks (I am always clutching a notebook) are always full of ideas I have no time to develop. But on the day of the Nightingale I saw my opportunity and I painted myself into a corner.

These are papers covered in inks, paint, loose pigment and salt. The loveliest and unexpected things happen as they dry. These big sheets I use to build frames and arches…

I also save every tiny scrap of the painted papers. They’re like little gems! Waiting to be turned into a fox or a leaf.

I’ve been taking photos or doing little drawings, or sometimes taking the painted sheets out on a walk. I’ve been working on several at once. I have no idea what I’m going to do with them all, I just know that I want there to be a whole big wall full! A celebration of lock-down in my valley…

I’ve been painting these a little at a time, in between more serious and technical paintings for Toffee Town! They’ve been a little light relief and a chance to go small, and put all the set squares and T-squares away for a bit.

I would also like to state that during lock down, there has also been: home schooling, gardening, squabbling, mess, baking, complaining, washing, cooking, grumpiness, missing family, missing friends, ridiculous hours spent on Zoom with cousins, running without children, family zoom quizzes… Generally a balance of good and bad. This is just meant to be a post about the good stuff.

UPDATE: The exhibition will now launch on Saturday 26th September.

Happy to announce a new solo exhibition at The Yorkshire Gallery in The Piece Hall, Halifax.

‘TOFFEE TOWN’

THE BEAUTIFUL BUILDINGS OF HALIFAX

Saturday May 23rd – August 16th.

I’m an Offcumden you know. I don’t count myself as a Southerner as Suffolk, where I was born and lived til I was 19, is really out on a limb and isn’t connected to anywhere. But Northerners would probably count me a Southerner… I came North to York for University in 1995 and our tutor (Bruce Windle. Lovely man) took us to Bankfield Museum in Halifax. It was the first time I’d ever been to Halifax and I remember being blown away by the incredible Victorian Industrial architecture. There’s nothing like it in Suffolk; nothing like it in the Yorkshire I was experiencing in York come to that. We must have driven over the fly-over with the North Bridge and Dean Clough beneath us, and then dropped down to Bankfield and Akroydon.

Even since The Lost Houses exhibition at Bankfield I have even more of a fascination with these grand buildings, left over from a far more prosperous era. ‘Toffee Town’ was the nickname for Halifax because of the Macintosh factory and this exhibition is to be a celebration of Halifax’s beautiful buildings. I’ve just this morning completed this one of Akroydon – the model village built by Edward Akroyd. I think it’s every bit as lovely as Saltaire, but it’s not so well known.

I have several more paintings started now and I’ll post updates as they progress. I just wanted to announce the date! Which means I really really must crack on (a new one of Shibden Hall is under way on my desk…)

I was thrilled last year when Shibden Hall commissioned a painting for their entrance hall. It’s rare for me to go there without the children, and therefore the pull of the boating lake or the playground. I went in August while they were staying with Granny down in Wiltshire.

I played around with two compositions. There’s a lovely view from the orchard above – a birds eye view. Or the view from the lake below, looking up at the house…

The Hall requested the second one. The hall is like a treasure trove of beautiful details! There is a window in the main hall with stained glass fragments salvaged from another local house. I love the creatures; I’d love to know more about the symbolism. They remind me of the pagan creatures often found on Misericords in churches; they were an obsession of mine when I was a student.

Pattern is everywhere in the hall…

The tiles at the bottom of the picture gave me a place for my treasure.

So here it is, work in progress…

Special requests to be included were: The Lister Lion. The Lister coat of arms. The stained glass creatures. And lastly, the dove and the crow to represent Ann Walker and Anne Lister.

I have yet to proof it for colour for prints, but when i do these should be available as hand finished prints at the hall. Then it’s framing and hanging! I’ll post a photo once it’s up.

It can’t have escaped your notice (and if it has – well done) that it’s the countdown to Christmas. Thank you to everyone who’s bought from my online shop, or through one of the galleries that sell my work. Hebden Bridge has been wonderfully buzzy this weekend, and last, with Open Studios and street markets. I’ve managed to avoid Amazon almost entirely (almost! But I needed printer ink and shoe dye, which I couldn’t find anywhere else) instead using my Amazon shopping cart app to list all the books I wanted, and then buy them from the Salts Mill book shop and my local  The Bookcase.

I wish I could show you the presents I purchased in Hawksbys and at Craft in the Pen, but I’d spoil surprises if I did. I did manage to find a small, vintage bowler hat for my 9 year old son in Oh La La! in Haworth. He’s going through a dressing up phase and is rarely seen at breakfast without a tweed waistcoat and silk tie. I’m nurturing his eccentricity. He shows no interest in screens and I want it to last.

I have many potential presents available on my website at the moment. However, these are the last few days for print orders, so don’t leave it too late!

The last day for print orders is going to be Wednesday 11th December, unless it’s something I have finished and ready in the studio. I’m happy to try and help locate what you want elsewhere as I know what the galleries hold in stock.

Small prints (plenty of big ones too):

 

 

2020 Calendars:

Folding Books:

And of course, Lanterns!

We will be posting from the studio right up until Friday December 20th. The Post Office have given this as the last day for Christmas delivery.

I’m very excited, and more than a little nervous, as next week I’m going to have eye surgery! I’ve worn glasses since I was about 18 months old; my eye sight is almost comically bad. But for the first time (all being well) I will be able to see when I open my eyes in the morning.

Glasses were so bad when I was small. I always wanted the pink or the blue ones (my lenses were so thick that the options were only this style in black, brown, pink or blue), but my Mum insisted on brown or black “to match your nice dark hair”.

It will take a few days before I can see well enough to stitch, which is why I won’t be able to fulfill print orders after Thursday.

 

I realise that I’ve not posted anything here since just before Open Studios back in July. Everything seems to get a bit chaotic over the summer and my family had some good adventures over the holidays. For the first time, I was a little sad to get back into the studio routine. The twins are eight now, and my eldest is 12. They’re good company! I hope it lasts.

Anyway, while they were away for a few days with my lovely Mum in the summer, I took my camera off to Halifax to start planning a new exhibition for next year. Last week I sat and started properly drawing things out, and now I can’t wait to start painting. Halifax has some spectacular architecture. Very grand Victorian stuff built at the height of the industrial revoultion. But much older buildings too, like The Piece Hall and Shibden Hall.

I met someone last year that told me Halifax was known at one time as ‘Toffee Town’ because of the Mackintosh factory and I thought that this would be the perfect title for an exhibition to be held next year at The Yorkshire Gallery in The Piece Hall. Actually, I’d intially thought ‘Hell, Hull and Halifax…’, but Paul from the gallery thought this wouldn’t have the right appeal! I only meant it in that people are often so surprised, especially when they go to The Piece Hall, at how beautiful the town is.

Crossley Heath School – my daughter aspired to go there because it looked like Hogwarts, Halifax Town Hall – it’s just beautiful, and Shibden Hall – it’s always been beautiful but suddenly the wider world knows about Anne Lister and visitors are coming from all over the world to see it!

Akroydon – Halifax’s model village (so lovely, so many allotments!), The Piece Hall and the Borough Market building (from above so I can get Streets in the Sky in there for those that know…), and Dean Clough and North Bridge.

I love drawing buildings and planning these out has been great fun. I think I need about two more ideas, if anyone has any suggestions?

So we’re in the process of hanging things and clearing out. My wonderful Mum has come to stay and is busy wrapping up all the little prints:

Mum: She said a VERY rude word when I took her photo.

And yesterday, just in time, my 2020 Calendars arrived!

There are lots of prints. Including prints (and little proofs) of the new work currently hanging at Chantry House Gallery. There are also some small originals, including this trio of Northumberland waves paintings,

and the little folding book I’ve made using the images: I had a lovely time making these yesterday. It’s very satisfying putting the little gold leaf square on the front. Little things please little minds!

There are almost 100 artists taking part in the trail this year. See the Hebden Bridge Open Studios website for a map and a list of all the other artists

I am right in the centre of town, at venue 61. My studio, and most of the others, will be open Friday 5th – Sunday 7th July; 11am til 5pm.

My studio is on the main rd that runs through town. Pass the Co-op on your left (heading towards Todmorden), then The Turkish Barbers, Hat Therapy and Snug Gallery on your right. Look out for a little alley on your right hand side signed Stoney Lane. The back gate is up there on your left, before the Cuckoo Steps. It will be well signed!