I’ve not posted for ages! It’s not good enough – I’m sorry. I’ve been working, just not blogging, and now I’ve an exhibition coming up. It opens on Saturday June 18th!

Back in the Autumn I escaped in Daphne (Daphne is my yellow Fiat 500. It’s impossible not to be happy when driving her) for a couple of drawing days in North Yorkshire. My friend Emma, owner of Chantry House Gallery suggested ages ago (in the first lock down I think) that she’d love me to have an exhibition of North Yorkshire Abbeys. So I had a route and a plan and an abbeys wish list…

I’ve never been to Byland Abbey before. It’s an incredible place! The day was rather grey, but the autumn colours spectacular – in their last throws before the November gales took the leaves. It’s a very silent place – very still. I love tiles and Byland has the most beautiful, and most complete, tiled floors I think.

I’m painting two pictures of Byland. This one is finished. The tiles merging into the autumn colours inspired by the mosaics inside.

This one is well under way. If I’m honest, I’m saving the tile designs in the bottom section for a treat, when something else is proving tricky. They will be a joy to do.

After Byland I drove to Rievaulx, then the next day to Jervaulx – again, somewhere I’ve never been. It’s beautifully wild and overgrown. Unkempt in a romantic way; I can see why people love it. I went early in the morning so I had the early morning light. It was very cold so i couldn’t draw for long before my fingers went numb, but I had the place to myself:

From Jervaulx to Fountains Abbey. One is nearly finished. One just in the early stages…

So that kept me busy up until February when the weather was fit for venturing out again. We escaped Hebden Bridge as the roads were flooding at February half term, and went to Staithes. There’s nothing like sea air to blow the cobwebs away, even if our rented cottage had run out of heating oil, so we spent our first evening huddled around a fan heater, and we slept in hats and jumpers.

I did speedy drawing in high winds and, at one point, standing in the sea! I’ve had a picture in my head for ages, and needed to work out the composition.

And then this! The Abbey was actually closed to the public in the morning because the winds were so strong. Again – speedy drawing in freezing wind!

Hattie and I are off to York on Monday. Me to draw, and her to meander. It’s a teacher training day and she loves York (as do I!) so we might allow ourselves afternoon tea in Bettys if the drawings go well.

One last thing. This exhibition needs a title! North Yorkshire Abbeys sounds very formal. I wondered about Silent Ruins – but maybe that sounds melancholy. Something that encompasses stillness, sometimes wildness, and the vastness of the decaying archticture. If you have any ideas, please let me know!

I am auctioning this painting of Shibden Hall on Sunday, with all proceeds going to the DEC (Disasters Emergency Committee – Ukraine Humanitarian Appeal). I know that many artists have been selling their work, much of it on the sunflower theme. I finished this earlier this month and realised it was in the Ukrainian colours. It’s a tenuous link, but I’m sticking to it! Like everyone else, I’m desperate to do something to help.

This little painting is called ‘Evening at Shibden’. In inks, acrylics, watercolour, gouache, gold thread and gold leaf. There’s a great deal of talk locally about the delayed Anne Lister birthday celebrations (she would have been 230 last April) which made me think of an evening gathering at Shibden Hall. The lights from the house spilling out onto the lawn. The sounds of talking and laughing coming from inside. Anne’s library light is on; perhaps she’s escaped up there for some peace and quiet.

You can only see a jpeg here, so can I just add that I’m rather proud of this little painting. It glows!

The painted area is 27 x 27cm. I will have it framed (double mounted, simple pale oak frame) for anyone that bids in the UK. But if I send it overseas it will be safer to send it unframed. I’ll cross that bridge when I come to it! I will liaise with whoever buys it about delivery, and split the cost. I hope that people think this is reasonable.

I will launch the auction on my Facebook page on Saturday morning (19th March) – just add your bid in the comments to the post. The auction will end at 9pm UK time on Sunday evening so please do not bid after this time as it will not be considered!

I know that not everyone is on Facebook, but it’s where I have the greatest reach. If you would like to bid, but not on Facebook, then please just email me and I will add your bid.

I’d be very grateful if you could share this with anyone you think might be interested.

Thank you so much to everyone who came along on Saturday September 25th to Bankfield Museum. It was such a lovely day.

I am incredibly grateful to the to the staff at the Museum, and they must be grateful that I wasn’t the one wielding the drill to equally space and hang 42 framed pieces, no two the same size!

It took a couple of days to hang in the end, but it’s a stunning setting, and I still can’t believe I filled that huge space.

The Museum is stocking The Nightingale Project book and hand-finished prints of many of the new pieces. I shall do my best to keep them well stocked for the next few months!

My daughter Hattie took these photos. I’m seriously impressed….

The exhibition shows 8 large landscapes. Three small Cliffs paintings. And 41 Nightingale Project pieces:

And it is up until March 2022! So please go and see it.

Bankfield Museum is open Tuesday to Saturday, from 10am until 4pm. There is a cafe, a really excellent costume exhibition (I’ve been told that Bankfield have a costume archive second only to the V&A. It really is a treasure of a place). It’s also near a nice park, in case deals need to be made with small visitors.

My exhibition at Bankfield Museum opens in a few weeks time. I’ve been working on new landscapes this summer, inspired by long anticipated day trips out of the valley! We went to Malham Cove…

To the bookshop at Saltaire, and then the park with a picnic.

For Afternoon Tea at Betty’s in Ilkley on my birthday. But we had to earn it first with a walk on Ilkley Moor.

I live near some very beautiful places. There have been many a trip to Hardcastle Crags over the last year…

There are more, but you’ll have to come to Bankfield and see them. I will be posting full details (including sizes and prices) of all the works going on sale the week before the exhibition opens. This will include all of the landscapes, and most of the Nightingale Project paintings.

I bought out a book in July; a kind of lock-down project about collecting trees and making the best of a stange time for my children. The Nightingale Project pictures will all be displayed together on one huge wall. I’m very excited about this. In the midst of the project I would lay them all out on the floor with me standing in the middle, and then make a little movie on my phone to send to my Mum and my sisters.

After a while there were too many for my floor. I intended to make 30 and I eventually stopped at 43, so I’ve never seen them all together. Some of them are very small. A lot of the art works had to be portable.

The book will be available, along with prints of much of the new work.

The exhibition will open at 10am with refreshments and speeches taking place at 2pm.

All works are for sale. Works will be available to purchase in person from 10am and by phone (01422 352334) at 12 noon.

Everyone welcome for the launch, please RSVP with the amount of people attending by Monday 20 September to museums@calderdale.gov.uk

Tidying has begun in earnest. Hebden Bridge Open Studios is back! And I shall be opening from 11am – 5pm on July 9th, 10th and 11th.

88 artists are opening their studios to show you where they work and what they create! We so missed this last year – It’s great to be able to do it again. Have a look and see who’s open at the weekend. The website has lots of links and images now, so you can plan your own trail.

We had a delivery this week, from Henry Ling…

The company was recommended by a friend of my Mums, who designs artist’s books for exhibitions. He’d said “well, if she wants the very best, she should go to Henry Ling”. It’s been nerve wracking – selling a book I’ve not seen. But they are beautiful! Even better than I had hoped.

Many of the pre-orders have been packed up over the weekend. Daniel has been on book wraps. The twins have been on building the postcard packs…

Pre-orders for collection can either be picked up at Open Studios, or from Monday July 5th. Just email me and we can sort out a time this week

You can still pre-order The Nightingale Project ahead of the Open Studios launch on Friday 9th July. Pre-ordered copies will come signed and with a pack of 10 postcards (my favourite images from the book) as a thank you. Alternatively, my local and lovely Heart Gallery can also take your pre-order. Pop in and see Alison or Ness there before Friday…

The book officially goes on sale on Friday 9th July! Come and see it. 2022 Calendars have also been delivered this week, and I’ve been gilding and stitching this years batch of little printers proofs…

Things will have to be a little different this year – I’m sure you’ll understand. Obviously face masks / sanitiser / social distancing. Some of the studio groups have one way systems in place to keep you safe. Some people’s work space is small so they may have to limit numbers. For my part, I think 2 people (as well as me), or one bubble can come in at a time, so you may have to wait outside. I’ll put chairs in the courtyard and, if the weather is dry, I’ll put as much work outside as I can. We’re all double jabbed and will make it as safe as we possibly can. A couple of people have been in touch, worried about either having to queue or it being very busy. I can make a few appointments available on Friday and Saturday, after 5pm if you would prefer this. Just email me and let me know.

I hope you can come!

I’ve been very quiet for a while – sorry about that. Now that the children are back at school I have a little more time and have been making the most of it. The Nightingale Project, which I started a year ago, has gained momentum in recent weeks. Many of the paintings were just scribbles and notes, and had to be left while i concentrated on the paintings for Toffee Town, and then Christmas orders. And then, well, home schooling slowed production too. Though my Maths has improved!

Anyway – as the paintings have been coming together, I’ve made a definite decision about what to to with them:

I’ve been putting the paintings and the lists of things we saw in chronological order. From March 2020 to March 2021 I can see the seasons change, and it’s been good to look back and remember some of the lovely times we’ve had. Small scale, and very local – but quite precious.

This is my latest group – some are not quite finished…

They’re all a mix of inky paper collage, inks, watercolour, threads, gold leaf. They’re not literal, but maybe each one is like a diary entry – a collection of things that we saw or heard on a particular day. Some trees I photographed every month – like the twisted willow down at Hardcastle Craggs. It’s such a beautiful shape that it’s lost in the summer. In October it suddenly looked like a Kay Nielsen tree, so that’s the season I chose (If you don’t know Kay Nielsen’s work then do look him up).

I’ve found a book binder that specialises in art books and have started working out the details; choosing cloth cover colours and paper quality. I’m producing this myself and I want to do it right!

For the text I played around with all sorts of layouts and lettering but nothing felt right. So I’ve taken the very practical and sensible decision that every page is going to be handwritted with a Copperplate dip pen…

There will be over 30 trees when this is done, and I still really want to present them all together. One huge joyful wall of rich colour and delicate detail. It’s all been about finding beauty in the small things. With galleries and museums all closed it’s not been a good time to sort this part of the project out, but I’m determined to find somewhere. Ideally to coincide with the launch of the book.

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.