Westerdale, near Castleton, is a very special place for me, and I often return there. It inspired my first two paintings of the year. The first one is currently exhibited at “Inspired by… gallery”, in Danby Moors Centre.
I’ve been selected to take part in the North Yorkshire Open Studios 2023, and all selected artists have been asked to exhibit one artwork in Danby. This preview, which runs until mid May, may help you to decide which artists you will visit in June. With over 140 artists in our vast county, the two open studios weekends may not be long enough to visit them all!
Currently exhibited in Inspired by Gallery in Danby, open every day.
Thank you for your support throughout the year, whether you bought one of my cards, calendar, print or painting, or commissioned a painting. I wish you all a Happy New Year!
Here is a quiet watercolour of Loftus Beck, painted on 25th December.
It’s that time of year! My new calendar for 2023 features my most recent painting of Robin Hood’s Bay on the cover. If you would like to order or reserve one (or more!) of my calendars, please contact me by phone or email. Thank you.
Edit. 6 December. I did do a second edition in November. I have now run out, but there are copies available from Wold Pottery in Loftus, and from the Brigantia exhibition at Inspiredby Gallery in Danby Moors Centre. Thank you to everyone who bought one!
Still at the same price as the last few years (£12.50), with free postage if you order 2 or more (UK only). If you order just one calendar, or calendars to be sent to separate addresses, please add £2 towards postage, as both postage and printing costs have risen. Unless you’re struggling, in that case please let me know and I’ll waive the postage.
PS. 3 November 2022. I have no calendars left in stock, but I could get more printed. So if you missed out but you would like one, please let me know. If I get at least 25 orders, I’ll get more printed in mid November. 🙂
Each page features a different painting. This year the locations are not named on the calendar, so you could play a “guess the location” game, or come back to this page for the answers:
Calendars. Trad tech, re-usable, recyclable. Printed on SFC certified paper (mix from responsible sources). Paper and ink technology: works without need for power or signal, to remind you of important appointments or birthdays. Re-useable: each page is blank on the back, so you can cut out the pictures and use them as stationary or frame your favourite images. By buying a calendar, you get a new image on your wall every month, and you help an artist to carry on creating. Thank you for supporting a local artist!
Some prices don’t change as quickly as others. While sorting some old paperwork, I realised that the retail price of my cards is still as it was twelve years ago! To celebrate this little oasis of tranquillity in our changing world, let me introduce my Robin Hood’s Bay Collection. Please contact me by phone or email, if you want to order or reserve cards. £15 (+ postage) for 6 cards or £30 for 12 cards (2 of each).
I’ve been so lucky this year: a commission every month, from January to July! I’ll be open to new commissions from September. My latest commission, for a lovely couple, to celebrate her 75th birthday, and to have sunny days on their wall everyday: Ebbing Tide Revisited, Robin Hood’s Bay. oil on canvas, 50x70cm.
I love bluebells and in May, between commissions, I painted this sunset. My only painting of bluebells this year, it is rather dark and moody. Someone said his mother used to live in a cottage in these woods, and had to walk to school along those paths. It could feel a bit scary if you were a little girl and, with the Little Red Riding Hood story in your mind, you imagined that a wolf may be hiding amongst the trees… Someone was very interested in this painting, so I told him I would reserve it for him for as long as he needed to decide (I really like it, so I was happy to keep it on my wall). A couple of months later, he has decided that he definitely really likes it. (happy little dance).
The weeks do fly by, and especially in Summer. Between time in the garden, re-sourcing and re-grounding, I’ve been painting commissions, including the one above, to bring a bit of North Yorkshire to a charming couple’s southern garden room.
And for those interested in my local environment, here is the link to the commissions I was painting at the beginning of the year for the CPRE (the countryside charity). Click on the PDF to see the full report, including my watercolours: https://www.cpre.org.uk/resources/loftus-community-energy-vision/
This weekend, 25 & 26 June, it’s Whitby Art Fair! There hasn’t been one since June 2019, so artists are looking forward to it. For many of us it will be our first exhibition since our lives became more reclusive… It’s happening in Whitby Pavilion, on Whitby West Cliff, and over 40 artists are taking part. I hope to see you there!
One of the paintings to be shown at Whitby Art Fair
Here is a finished commission, now in its new home. For his wife’s birthday, someone wanted a painting of Robin Hood’s Bay, with a fox! It was kept as a surprise and revealed today. She wrote:” if I was to paint a picture in my mind of my favourite view from one of our visits to RHB, including my love of foxes, your painting would be it! I absolutely love it.” Commissions can be a bit daunting, but it’s such a good feeling…
The bluebells were stunning this year. In Loftus woods, some trees have been cleared and the flowers bloomed in the increased sunlight. In between commissions, while waiting for new blank canvases to arrive, I walked in the woods and was drawn to paint them again.
Loftus Bluebell Woods Sunset, 2022. oil paint on deep edge canvas, 50x100cm (approx 20×40″).
Tomorrow, 28 April, is the first day of Brigantia’s art & craft exhibition at the Bath House, RHS Harlow Carr, in Harrogate. The exhibition runs until the 29th May. I will not be there, but some of my work will be, including this most recent watercolour. It is the first time that I have painted with watercolour on canvas, and I’ve enjoyed the process. My friend Ailsa gave me some tulip bulbs in my darkest winter, a gift of hope. I planted them after all hope was lost, but every year those strange tulips rise up in their fiery red. They talk to me of bleak winters underground, and of the surge of Spring, of love and friendship.
