Thank you to all those of you who came to visit during the Open Studios. This Summer I’m mostly painting commissions and enjoying the glory of the North Yorkshire coast when the sun shines. And I will try to update this site with my new paintings soon…
If you like my style and you would like me to create a painting for you and your wall, please get in touch, as I’ll be able to take on new commissions in September. I hope you have a good Summer, wherever you are.
My new calendars have landed! Most of these paintings were completed this year. The calendar, as in previous years is A4, one page per month and printed on 250gsm paper in Yorkshire. I hope you will like the artwork I have chosen for this next year.
Please reserve your copy, and tell me if you want to pick it up from me or you want it posted to you. Thank you!
The calendars are also available from Wold Pottery in Loftus.
£12.50 each (+ postage* where applicable)
*sorry, my prices haven’t changed but postage has gone up…
1st class Postage UK:
For 1 calendar: £3.30
For 2 calendars sent to one address: £3.30
For 3 calendars sent to one address: £4.80
For 4 to 8 calendars sent to one address: £5.40
I have been rather busy… A large commission (a quadriptych!) was finished last week and went to its new home today, an exhibition at The Station in Richmond in September came and went, and I’ve been designing a calendar for 2024 which should be ready in a couple of weeks. But for now, here is “Monk’s Trod”:
The wonderful Ilona knew and liked my artwork and wanted a large painting of the bluebells woods by the old monk’s trod in Glaisdale. This painting would capture the essence of the place, and would be a memorial to her mother, who loved to walk along that path. The small sized rooms, stairs and doorways of my little house stop me from working on very large canvases, so I suggested a triptych. It was Ilona’s idea to have four panels and to stagger them, and it worked very well (at least we both think so), with the path linking the four canvases together. It has been quite thrilling to work on such a big piece, for nearly three months. My newly insulated and refurbished attic studio feels empty now, the easels standing like suddenly denuded trees. But it won’t be empty for long, as I have a couple of other commissions to paint…
My latest painting is different from my other landscapes, an impression from memory rather than a studied representation. A rougher, more immediate painting style. The image started as an abstract, then became a sunset over a frozen broken land, then as paint layers built up, I realised I was painting Glaisdale. It feels good sometimes to start with just marks and colours and discover where the paint takes you.
Glaisdale Dale. Oil on thin edge stretched canvas, 50x70cm.
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!
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/
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.
After a small delay, I now have calendars in stock, so I’m starting to post calendars to those who have reserved one (I’ll email or message to confirm when posted). If you would like to order one, please contact me. Thank you.
2022 wall calendar, A4, £12.50 each. Free UK delivery if you order in October!
I have spent a lot of time in my garden. It earths me. So when it’s warm and sunny, I am outside with the flowers. But of course I still find time to paint. I recently finished this commission. There is a wonderful couple, who love my artwork, and also love where they live. They bought their house because of the view. A few years ago, they commissioned a painting of the view from their house, and this year they commissioned the view from an upstairs window. It was a delight to immerse myself into such a peaceful landscape.
