The last week of the Christmas holiday was grim and grey, but the forecast for the last weekend looked suddenly bright and cold. We all bundled in the car to the East coast in search of some Whitby air to blow the Christmas cobwebs away. I always think that the last minute trips are the best kind. No expectation. No plans. Everything is a bonus. I love winter light on the sea. That spectacular cloud is a hail storm heading in our direction… After a night in the youth hostel (where the kids were thrilled because they ALL got a…

At this time of year the studio is busy with orders from customers and galleries. Which is lovely! I love to be busy. But yesterday I skived… My last exhibition in my home town of Hebden Bridge was in Spring of 2015, and my next one will open at Heart Gallery on April 26th 2018. It’s called ‘Craggs & Fells’ and is all to be beautiful, local pieces… In a busy house where everyone likes to talk at once, I sometimes run just to be still. Through the bogs and Bracken, in the sunshine and the snow, I’ll play out…

I love notebooks. I’ve always loved them, and my girls have inherited my obsession. If we go to the wonderful bookshop at Saltaire, Hattie will circle the stand with the beautiful notebooks, picking each one up, and putting it down before spending several weeks pocket money on something tiny and exquisite that’s too precious to write in! This weekend I went to Edinburgh to begin to learn how to make my own. Rachel Hazell does the most amazing courses, taking people on adventures to Iona or Paris to create bookish works of art. My course was just about learning structures….

Surprisingly calm actually. The last paintings are done and now with the framer. I’m delivering the work to the gallery tomorrow, and the exhibition opens on Saturday morning at 10am. I’m stitching prints today. The children are all in school, and my lovely Mum is in the kitchen making soup. I’m sure things aren’t usually this calm with only four days to go. This is the Kilburn White Horse. I finished it at the weekend: The Kilburn White Horse I love White horses. My Granny lived near the Westbury White Horse in Wiltshire and I remember clambering across – even…

The studio has been a hive of industry of late. But occasionally I’ve looked up from my desk. This is currently the view through the skylight. How lucky am I? Less than 2 weeks to go now til ‘Big Skies & Old Stones’ opens at Chantry House Gallery in Ripley. I’ve been working on pieces based on Whitby, Staithes and Robin Hoods Bay, where we had a lovely family holiday last October. The weather was cold and bright – perfect Whitby weather. Daniel says I’m not to post whole paintings! So here are some work in progress shots of 4…

Somehow it’s April. I don’t know where March went, but suddenly it’s April and I have a new exhibition opening next month at Chantry House Gallery. The exhibition opens on Saturday May 20th at 10cm I’m very excited. Last year I spent so long writing the Lost Houses book that very little real painting went on in my studio. I began to feel that maybe I had stage fright; that this lovely room with its large clean desks was too nice for me, and certainly too nice to make a mess in! But once I got started I realised how…

I am very excited that Cliffe Castle Museum in Keighley is showing my Lost Houses exhibition in the upstairs gallery. It opens on Saturday February 11th and will be up til April 23rd. I’m going to be in the museum all day on February 11th and April 1st. My kids love Cliffe Castle. The building itself is almost a Lost House as there’s only half left of what was a fantastically elaborate Industrialist’s grand residence. It used to have stunning glass houses. Now it has a pretty good park. There’s also a wonderful natural history collection (stuffed animals!) and rocks…

I’ve been trying to strike a balance in the studio this month. Mondays and Wednesdays are supposed to be precious, uninterrupted (loud music and no children) PAINTING DAYS! Back in the summer I had a few days on my own in North Yorksire, drawing and planning for an exhibition at Chantry House Gallery this coming Spring. It’s been lovely, after all the work on the book, to get painty again. These are Rievaulx and Fountins Abby. I have plans for some Castle Howard paintings too. Here’s another of Whitby. I spent half term there with my family. I’ve also been…

I’ve been very quiet of late. And I’ve been spending more time in front of a computer screen, and less playing with the inks and beautiful new brushes Rosemary & Co that I bought at Art in Action at the start of the summer. I’ve been busy with the book…. Don’t get excited. This is a blank book provided by the book binder to give me an idea of how it will look. I launched a Kickstarter campaign back in July to part fund the production. I am incredibly grateful to all of you that pledged. It’s meant a great…