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...

Cotton Grass on Black Pebble

One of my Cotton Grass prints collaged onto a salvaged block of wood (from when we had a new studio staircase put in). The block is standing on a plate by Poole Pottery, designed by Robert Jefferson in the late 1950s and called Black Pebble. I love Black Pebble and use a set at home but this plate is badly chipped; I couldn't face binning it, so it lives in my studio.

Frightened Lake

Despite a long silence on here, the Widdop obsession continues unabated. As I've mentioned elsewhere Ted Hughes aptly described Widdop Reservoir as a 'Frightened Lake' in part connected with its isolation I think, but also to do with the peculiar way the water shivers under the ruthless wind that furrows it from nose to tail.

This is a current large drawing based on a tiny sketch done in August 2012. I'm trying to get it finished and framed in time for the Open Studios weekend in Hebden Bridge  3, 4 & 5 July (next weekend in fact).

I will be opening my space at Brooklyn Studios despite not being in the brochure this year. I thought I'd be away but things have worked out differently. It will be good to have a Widdop drawing dominating the wall

SUNTANGLE

TWIG MESH

SKY STUDIO IN THE SNOW

Rejecting the conventional art tools in my kit, I selected from the natural range provided by Sky Studio this afternoon. Here's a close-up of some twiggy marks.

The decor in the studio this week is a refreshing moss green and snow white offset by neutrals in russet and fawn.

The heating has been off for quite a while so a certain degree of physical bravery is called for alongside a rapid sketching style.

Sky Studio is all about being in the now, and there's no point in worrying too much about making a 'good' drawing; its enough to just be there doing it.

SUN AND SNOW OVER HEPTONSTALL

Had to force myself out from the warm today to get some fresh air. I'm so glad I did. Climbing up through Spring Wood the world quickly disappeared under a big grey snow storm and then just as swiftly it swept past leaving the boiling sun in a serene blue sky.

WHITEOUT

SKY STUDIO

Some views from Sky Studio this morning and a very hasty sketch from a wobbly perch.

EPHEMERAL DRAWINGS 3

A new drawing on my blackboard. This one's based on some photos I took of a snowy Hebden Bridge last year. Snow... beautiful but it makes everything so slippery in our damp little valley.

GOODBYE chalkboard drawing its time for a change

Surprised at how painless it was to wipe away my chalk drawing even though I felt it was quite a  successful rendering of moorland and clouds.

MY STUDIO SPACE (unusually tidy)

In my tiny little studio space I do drawing, printmaking, painting and paper engineering with all the associated tools and materials. Sometimes I can hardly turn round there's so much stuff to be stored. So it takes a huge effort to make it suitably tidy and safe to allow people in for open studios. For a couple of days the space is lovely and calm and then it all unravels again...