I finished this painting today. The house was called Harrowins and it stood in Queensbury for about 80 years. No one knows exactly where it stood, or exactly when it was demolished. Only that no one, not even the golf club wanted it in the end!

 

This is the last one of  14 large paintings for my Lost Houses of the South Pennines  exhibition. The installation begins at Bankfield Museum, Halifax, on Tuesday. It opens to the public on Saturday and runs until April 9th. Please come!

There’s also am opening party on the Friday (January 22nd). Please email me if you would like an invitation.

 

 

Maybe it’s a bit soon to start talking about after Christmas, but I can’t think of much else at the moment. I’ve booked the Jazz trio, Bought the Champagne and I’ve been trying on vintage dresses! I’m planning something a bit different for the opening of this next exhibition, the exhibition being very different to anything I’ve done before:

This is Castle Carr, Luddenden Dean – it’s the largest painting in the exhibition. I’ve looked at 10 houses in total. Someone let me borrow this photo. Its the last party to ever take place in the castle before it was knocked down. It’s Ronald Murgatroyd’s 21st Birthday party.

So I decided that the theme for the preview should be a 1930s champagne reception.

Friday January 22nd 2016 from 6 -9pm

It seems fitting for the venue; Bankfield Museum is an old Industrialists house, and has a wonderful marble staircase up the the gallery.

And – it’s going to be January, after Christmas, when I think we all need a bit of sparkle as we wait for Spring.

If anyone would like an invitation then please email me your address (gallery@katelycett.co.uk). The exhibition is going to be on at Bankfield until April. But the preview will have vintage jazz and bubbly and I think everyone should dress up! I don’t get the chance very often, so I’m going to make the most of it.

I have only one painting left to do – the others are nearly all here in the portfolio section. And the research continues over on my Lost Houses blog:

 

It’s still November, It’s still November, It’s still November…

I can’t be in denial after Tuesday though. We will be in December, which means Three Big Things!:

1) I have a children’s birthday party to organise (and though i try, I am rubbish at decorating cakes (though the thieving fingers would suggest that my icing isn’t bad!)).

2) Christmas is near, and I will be closing the web shop over the holidays. I will be taking orders, while stocks last, up until December 17th.

 

3) It’s nearing the deadline for everything to be complete for my Lost Houses of the South Pennines exhibition at Bankfield Museum. This is the project that has been haunting my dreams for two years now. The exhibition opens to the public on January 23rd 2016, and I’ve been writing a blog all about my research. Here’s a stage by stage, work in progress on one of the houses. This is Oakworth House:

The completed paintings are all here in the Lost Houses section of the portfolio. But please go over to the blog to find out about the houses themselves.

 

 

My twins start big school tomorrow. It’s going to be quite a change – the first time in nearly 9 years that I haven’t had a child at home. School days aren’t long, and the school isn’t far. But I  i’ll miss them. One of the many lovely things about having twins is the laughing. When you have someone just your size, just on your wave length; someone who thinks bottoms are just as funny as you do, you’re going to laugh a lot of the time. Squabble a lot of the time too mind. I will miss the clamor!

But when they go off tomorrow I will disappear into the quiet of my studio and carry on with my Lost Houses. I managed to complete this one during the holidays, while the children were with their grandparents. It’s a painting of Manor Heath, Halifax. There will be more information about it here soon. I haven’t had a chance to scan it properly yet. It’s quite big – about 75cm square.

I’ve also been working on this one:

Also of Manor Heath, but the back of it this time. It was only demolished in the 50s, but there are surprisingly few photographs of it.

It’s that time of year again when I have to tidy all the children’s toys and art work away, and pretend that I live in an immaculate house! I am opening up my house as a small gallery for the three days of Hebden Bridge Open Studios on July 3rd, 4th and 5th, from 11am til 5pm.

I will be selling cards and lanterns (my new card range should be here in time)

Framed and unframed prints (including all the new ones from the ‘Water and Light’ exhibition that recently finished at Heart Gallery).

I’ll have extra things too, that are only available at Open Studios, like these little printers proofs (all hand finished with gold leaf and thread):

And I can show you the Lost Houses work so far, if you’re interested. I’m getting this BIG one framed up for display…

There are all sorts of things happening in Hebden Bridge that weekend. Not only Open Studios, but also the second weekend of the Hebden Bridge Arts Festival  (all kinds of wonderful nonsense happens in the streets on Street Sundae!).

I live very centrally in Hebden Bridge. Close to the lovely shops. There is a map on the Open Studios website for where to find me. Everything is on the ground floor, with no steps so I’m very accessible. Please come along!

Now that ‘Water & Light’ is almost finished at Heart Gallery, I have been getting on with my Lost Houses project. There’s a separate blog about this here.

I’ll just post the paintings here. But the research and the stories in detail will be on the blog.

So far I have New Cragg Hall, an Arts and Crafts manor house that stood in Cragg Vale for less than 20 years before it was destroyed by fire…

And, more recently, Castle Carr. A grim brass castle in an isolated valley in Luddenden Dean…

The castle is all but disappeared, but the water gardens remain, opened to the public once a year.

There is lots more information about these buildings, along with photos of the remains and exciting finds in the archives, all on the lost houses blog..

http://losthouses.katelycett.co.uk/

Well I have to confess that Thursday evening stills feels a bit surreal!  With my best dress on i walked down to Heart Gallery to find a steadily growing queue outside.            We’d hung the exhibition the evening before, so i knew it all fitted in beautifully!

Once the doors were opened , everyone was welcomed with a little bit of bubbly…

I couldn’t get in to the picture room for the first hour! And by the time i did, almost everything was sold. It was wonderful, but i missed the chatting bit. I like the chatting bit!

And I don’t know where many of my paintings are off to (they’re staying in the gallery til the end of April before departing for their new homes)! I was proud of everything in the exhibition, but I did have three favourites, which will be hard to part with:

Lower Laithe Reservoir

The Allotments:

Printers Tray – Trees:

The printers tray especially I shall have to go and visit often before it goes (and I’ll have to find out where it goes).

Once the rush was over it was jolly, and warm and busy in the gallery.

This is Alison. The owner, and all round fabulous person.

And at 8 o’clock my lovely friend Cathy Woodall (she makes the most beautiful jewellery) brought in some emergency home baked cookies (she also makes the most amazing cookies!) to keep us all going to the end.

It was wonderful! Thank you to everyone that came along. Especially everyone at Heart Gallery

 

This time next week I will be wearing my best dress and proper grown up shoes (and trying hard to cover the scraped up knee from where I tripped over a rock running up Stoodley Pike yesterday!) and standing nervously in a room full of pictures. It’s a small room, and a years worth of work.

The theme of the exhibition is ‘Water & Light’, so I’m posting this one today. It’s a painting of Lumb Falls, drawn on a beautiful day last summer when there were lots of dippers, and other water birds i couldn’t name.

And another one of ‘Woodhouse Mill’. This is the still, reflective canal water. I like the contrast of the two:

Please come on the 26th, between 6 and 9pm! Heart Gallery will give you a warm welcome, and glass of wine. And you can see my pictures, and my bad knee!

‘Water & Light’ will run til June. Heart Gallery is open 7 days a week.

That’s it! The countdown style clock is ticking in my head. Only 4 weeks to go til the preview of ‘Water & Light’ at Heart gallery in Hebden Bridge.

I took the finished work to the framers yesterday. The delivery included two new Printer’s Trays. This one is of trees:

and this one is on an Allotments theme!

The preview is on March 26th from 6 til 9pm. All welcome!

The exhibition runs til June 21st.

I’ve finished the bigger, scarier pieces for the March exhibition now, so this is my reward…

I am basing this one all on tree studies, but there will be a second one in the exhibition, all based on allotments! More pictures of that soon.

I do now have the invitations for the exhibition preview on Thursday March 26th. If anyone would like one through the post, please contact me with your address.