Wild and Wonderful Widdop - Art Walk

A glorious day at Widdop, warm and sunny for most of the time with just a very brief shower at the end. There were 14 of us and everyone seemed to enjoy the opportunity to walk and sketch out in the landscape, the changing light and air movements making a dynamic vista to challenge and inspire.

It was all about taking part and having a go, rather than trying to create a polished artwork but I was impressed by the quality of work done.  There were some really marvellous drawings and paintings, full of of life and sensitivity - the quality you always get when working from real life.

Thanks to Pennine Prospects for organising the Walk and Ride Festival, a great way to get more people out in the magnificent South Pennines and trying out new outdoor activities.  There are loads more events going on over the next two weeks so take a look on the website here as there's bound to be something that takes your fancy.  Get out there before the big chill of winter sets in!

Widdop Sketches

Getting excited about the art walk on Sunday - the weather forecast seems to be indicate the prospect of some sunshine, can this really be true?...

These sketches were made a while ago and done from the shelter of a car whilst the rain hammered down.  The poor lamb, aghast and shivering, was cringing into a little hollow by the side of the road.

 I used a Derwent charcoal pencil on rough cartridge paper. The pencil was a bit clumsy and big for the scale of the drawing but I quite like the gritty marks.

Bank Holiday Widdop

Went up to Widdop reservoir on Monday to do a recce for the Art Walk on 9th September.  Typical August Bank Holiday weather, grey and grim and lashing with rain!  Not cold tho' and encased in Gortex from head to toe so dry on the inside.  Still plenty of lovely things to see, so even if the weather is this bad on the 9th we will be up for the challenge.

Art Walk for The South Pennine Walk and Ride Festival 2012

I'm back from a lovely sun-filled holiday in South Brittany and feeling ready to face the unstoppable winding down of summer and the approach of au..... (can't bring myself to say it yet)!

This year more than ever it seems vital to take advantage of any opportunity to spend time outdoors so with this in mind I'd like to mention an Art Walk I'll be leading as part of the 2012 South Pennine Walk and Ride Festival.

My walk is on Sunday 9th September and we'll be circumnavigating wild and wonderful Widdop Reservoir with frequent stops to make creative responses to the upland waterscape, come rain or shine!
You don't need extensive art skills, just a willingness to have a go and to try something different.

There are still places available so if anyone is interested in joining, follow the link below for more details and booking information.  There is no fee for this walk and Widdop is accessible by public transport until the end of September.

Walk and Ride Festival website

This shot of Widdop Reservoir was taken earlier this year during May when we had a very brief spell of unusually hot and windless weather.

July Flame

Something wonderful was nearly in my grasp.  I reached as high as I could go but somebody else was a little bit taller so it disappeared for ever.

Landmarks Exhibition

I have 5 of my woodcuts on show at the Water Street Gallery in Todmorden as part of the Landmarks Exhibition which is now open and running until 9th September.  This is a lovely exhibition with varied work by 25 different artists including Sally Barker who was involved with the Watershed - Inspired By Landscape Project I worked on last year.

If you have not been to the Water Street Gallery I can highly recommend it as a small but well laid out and friendly gallery with much to see.

More Flooding in the Calder Valley

Aaargh! after a lovely weekend of socialising and light hearts, hideous reality returned as the monsoon like rain attacked again on Monday and roared through the town. This time the studio cellar flooded like a swimming pool, we were down there bare footed, baling it out for about 3 hours and heaving buckets up stairs.  It came in so quick, just gushing in through the base of the wall.

Great team work saved the day and the musicians guitars and drum kit were saved although they lost their carpet.  Now all 's a bit soggy and whiffy, though only rainwater, not sewerage thank goodness.  Some of my furniture stored down there got damaged but nothing I can't cope with. We've had to drag loads of stuff up into the gallery to get dry, fat chance because its still raining.

I still feel lucky because I have a dry home to go to not like the poor unfortunates whose houses got swamped even though they live up in the hills.  Some people I know have both their home and their shop wrecked, its so sad.  And there's likely to be another flood alert on Friday...

Still flourishing at 92

I've shared this photo all over the web and make no apologies as I think its such a lovely picture of Joan my dear neighbour and Hebden Bridge Treasure.  It was taken in my abnormally tidy studio space, complete with flowers to help encourage the festival feeling in our Open Studios.

I had so much stuff to tidy away, I wonder how I'll ever find anything again as lack of time and rising panic necessitated the willy nilly ramming of things into any available hidey hole.  Oh well, it was worth it to ensure my visitors didn't come to any harm.

Hebden Bridge Open Studios 2012

I am based at Brooklyn Studios in Hebden Bridge and this weekend we are taking part in Open Studios, open 11 am to 5 pm.  Whatever the weather we will be there to offer a warm welcome to all our friends new and old so call in if you are passing; there's lots of new work on show and an opportunity to talk to the artists about their work.

The chickens have flown the coop

The dead ducks have departed the dovecote, the Godwit has gone awol and the owls have been out manoeuvred. In other words I've had to deinstall my bird skulls from the Grassington Dovecote as the festival has ended and they're now just a bag of bones back in the studio.

I have to report that the Tyvek has done a brilliant job.  The skulls have been outside for nearly 3 weeks in the rainiest and windiest June we've had in decades, and they are still perfect but with the addition of a few spiders webs - most appropriate.  I was really concerned that the InkAID assisted digital printing might wash off in the rain but its fine.  Isn't it great when things work out and materials live up to their promises.

Floods in the Calder Valley

Last Friday the rain was stupendously heavy and prolonged all day and into the night and inevitably the brimful rivers and canals flowed over their banks and into the little towns along the upper Calder Valley.

Fortunately no one was drowned but Saturday morning revealed scenes of sad devastation to homes and businesses in Todmorden, Hebden Bridge and Mytholmroyd.

Its grim to see communities that had just about been weathering the recession OK now reeling.  The only good thing to come out of it is the upwelling of support and community spirit that's seen large numbers of volunteers helping with the clear up and people raising money for the fund to help those worst affected.

Amazing things have been achieved in a few days and many of the affected shops are now opening.
Continued trading means jobs can be saved and wages paid - Shops and Tourism are the main industries in Hebden Bridge and provide decent jobs especially for child-rearing women who choose to work part-time. So please do buy local if you are in the area.

On a personal note, I had artwork in Spirals the lovely Fairtrade Eco shop owned by my unsinkable friends Helen and Sarah, but luckily for me my big framed woodcut print was in the upstairs room.  Two galleries that I was due to exhibit in during July have been affected, one in Todmorden and the other in Hebden Bridge and I'm not sure if both will go ahead now which is a shame, but of course completely minor in comparison to those artists who have had their work destroyed.

Despite all this, there's so much still going on in Hebden, there's life in the old town yet! especially this Saturday with the postponed Handmade Parade, Mytholmroyd Gala and the start of the Hebden Bridge Arts Festival. And the following weekend its Open Studios which I'll be fully participating in again at Brooklyn Studios.

More Woodcuts

Two more very recent woodcuts of Hebden Bridge Terraces.

I've enjoyed exploring all the different marks to make trees out of although the thousands of little gouges have strained my hands and shoulders and made a terrible mess in our kitchen (should have done this in the studio but sometimes its more comforting working at home when its chilly and dank and its supposed to be our summer...).

I'm possibly sorry that I've cleared so much from the road going up the hill, it seems too pale, although the hill roads round here do shimmer and reflect a lot of light, especially when damp. If I'd left it grey then there wouldn't be enough contrast.  It'll be interesting to see what difference hand-tinting might make, and I will probably fiddle around with some proofs to change the emphasis a bit.

Green Annihilation - in black and white

Exhibitions and Hebden Bridge Open Studios are looming so its been nose to the grindstone recently - a woodcutting frenzy has resulted in these little prints of upper Calder Valley terraces that seem to be disappearing into the trees.

The recent monsoon-like rains have led to rampant growth and reminded me of reading Marquez's One Hundred Years of Solitude over half a lifetime ago, where it rains in Macondo for 'four years, eleven months and two days'.

I took some pictures of the blocks before the initial inking as I love the soft look of them at this stage.
Its still always a shock when the image comes out reversed and very contrasty - you get used to seeing things one way and then suddenly everything's facing in the opposite direction - its easy to get confused...

Annoying Blogger

I like using Blogger most of the time but occasionally it drives me crazy when it seems to wilfully jumble up all the careful positioning and refuse to be corrected. So sorry to anyone following this blog who gets multiple posts just now.

Art Trail at Grassington Festival 2012

I've been keeping quiet about the work in progress for the Grassington Festival 2012 Art Trail, largely because I've been feeling unconfident about it.  There's always the worry about making a fool oneself in public.

Originally I was going to make some kind of book structure out of paper to be displayed in a shop window, but I did really want to try to make something to go outside in a specific site, for the challenge of it.  As soon as I saw the lovely ancient stone dovecote I knew I wanted to put work there and it just seemed natural to involve the folding paper bird skulls I started making as part of the 28 Days later drawing challenge in February. What better use for a disused dovecote than as an Ossuary? Like a cabinet of curiosities or a shrine to the birds whose skulls are so beautiful and redolent of their species.

So today I went to Grassington to install the work, ready for the start of the festival on Friday.  My colleague from Brooklyn Studios, Lynda Thomas very kindly offered to help me and I really appreciated her standing guard as I scampered up and down a wobbly ladder.

Here's all the stuff in my studio ready to be packed up this morning and an earlier trial run of installing a skull in a niche in the printmaking area.

And here's the initial concept drawing in my sketchbook with a mini skull in situ.

The theme of the festival is Tracks and Trails and the 15 participating artists were asked to respond to an artwork chosen from Leeds Art Gallery's Picture Lending Scheme. I chose Black Landscape an etching by Norman Ackroyd.

The connection between the etching and my final artwork is the starkness of the winter land, a black and white world where the underlying architectural structure of the landscape is revealed. And on those late winter and early spring walks you often find exciting objects to bring home, like the wondrous skeletal remains of birds and plants that still speak so strongly of their living selves.

More Enfolding Landscape Revealed

Here's the second part of The Enfolding Landscape Revealed.  The image is all about the wader's eggs I saw on High Brown Knoll at Easter 2011.

The Turkish map fold format really helps to give the sensation of drawing back the grass to reveal the simple but well camouflaged scrape that forms the nest.