Hebden Bridge Greetings Cards

I've put new stock on my little on-line shop with Big Cartel, including this set of popular autumnal greetings cards featuring buildings in Hebden Bridge. angierogers.bigcartel.com

The original artwork was done in ink and wash on manila envelopes using a reed pen made by me from locally growing reeds.

South Pennine Moorland Paintings

I'm sitting looking out my window at home and the colours outside are exactly the same as a painting I just completed, even though I'm seeing trees on the valley floor rather than the high moorland in my picture.

Distant Bright Water, oil pastel on 640 gsm watercolour paper, 35 cm x 60 cm.

When you're up on High Brown Knoll, (one of my favourite local haunts) if the weather is kind you can see right across to three distant reservoirs in the west, Widdop on the right and the two Gorples on the left.  The space in-between the hills acts as a cauldron making turbulent skies which are normally far more interesting to paint than placid blue

Here's another new moorland painting I finished recently, looking south east from High Brown Knoll with brilliant light breaking through chunks of heavy cloud and turning the moor grass gold.

Shifting Light From High Brown Knoll, oil pastel on 640 gsm watercolour paper, 35 cm x 60 cm.

I use Sennelier oil pastels, they are very high quality and are made from proper artists pigments. The feel of them is extremely buttery and some artists don't like this softness. For me it works and the coldness of my studio is for once an advantage. These oil pastels are extremely versatile, you can 'melt' them with turps to make glazes or apply them in very thick in layers. 

Sky And Water

The reservoir at Old Town above Hebden Bridge is square and very small, more like a pond.

But even the tiniest puddle can look serene and beautiful in the late afternoon sun.

Water And Fire

Recently one morning coming out of the very low cloud up on Oxenhope Moor into a sudden bright world of blue and sunshine, the vapour looking like smoke boiling up from the valley.

Cloud moving upwards

A few days later, not to be outdone by Nature's harmless spectacle, the keepers of 'game' must pollute an unblemished sky with their acrid heather burning, the plume of which flew out all along the tops before curling down into the valley.

smoke moving down

And I was left wondering at the circularity of things and shamed by an artist's fascination with the shapeshifting splendour of big smoke.

Late Summer Flora

Last week was a true 'Indian Summer' in the Calder Valley with misty mornings and dazzling afternoons. The growing time is almost over...