 York has to be in this exhibition. It draws all sorts of pilgrims:
lovers of architecture - its streets are lined with beautiful medieval buildings lovers of great cakes - is there anywhere nicer for tea than Betty's? lovers of all things to do with railways - my favourite thing in the National Railway Museum is the 1930s poster collection. Walking through the city on a quiet evening or first thing in the morning is just wonderful. This painting forms part of Places of Pilgrimage - an exhibition of paintings and prints at Southwell Minster: Preview at 7pm on Friday 11th September and open daily until Sunday 11th October. For more information CLICK HERE
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 I've had a long relationship with Kings Cross. This is where we would catch the overnight sleeper to see relatives in Aberdeen. My Dad would take me up the platform to say hello to the steam engine (yes - I am that old!) before we bedded down to wake up pulling out of Waverley Station.
Its got some great stories: Queen Boadicea buried under platform 5, Harry and Ron on platform 11&3/4 and all built on the site of The Great Dust Heap - the Victorian city dump. I just love the new roof - its a wonderful uplifting piece of architecture. This screen print forms part of Places of Pilgrimage - an exhibition of paintings and prints at Southwell Minster: Preview at 7pm on Friday 11th September and open daily until Sunday 11th October. For more information CLICK HERE  I think for many people Lindisfarne is a perfect example of a special place, from the strange feeling of driving into the sea as you cross the causeway to the peace of Holy Island Bay with its castle, priory and upturned boats.
I first came here in the company of a lovely man from Seaton Delaval who was shocked to find I'd never been. I hope this painting - one of my favourite views - goes someway to expressing my thanks. This painting forms part of Places of Pilgrimage - an exhibition of paintings and prints at Southwell Minster: Preview at 7pm on Friday 11th September and open daily until Sunday 11th October. For more information CLICK HERE  Brighton is where Londoners have been going for countless years for a bit of sun, sea and unrelentingly uncomfortable pebbles.
The Palace Pier is the well illuminated jewel in Brighton's crown. Lit by 67,000 light bulbs its a Victorian wonderland with a theatre, Winter Gardens, Palm Court restaurant, fun fair, Brighton rock and ice cream. Perfect! This screen print forms part of Places of Pilgrimage - an exhibition of paintings and prints at Southwell Minster: Preview at 7pm on Friday 11th September and open daily until Sunday 11th October. For more information CLICK HERE  Whitby is an extraordinary place. It's a full on chips-and-seagull extravaganza with side helpings of Captain Cook, St Hilda and ammonites. What I like most about it is its atmosphere - particularly the East Side with its Market Hall, the 199 steps and the church. I always feel like I'm on holiday here.
This painting forms part of Places of Pilgrimage - an exhibition of paintings and prints at Southwell Minster: Preview at 7pm on Friday 11th September and open daily until Sunday 11th October. For more information CLICK HERE  When I came to choose my Places of Pilgrimage for my current exhibition and book project there were certain places which were a must.
I first came to this sublime hill figure when I was eleven. I was bowled over by this amazing piece of prehistoric art. It follows the curving line of the hill above a deep valley known as The Manger and overlooks Dragon Hill where no grass grows (because that's where the dragon bled when St George killed it). This is, for me, the embodiment of the spirit of the horse. It's just beautiful. This screen print forms part of Places of Pilgrimage - an exhibition of paintings and prints at Southwell Minster: Preview at 7pm on Friday 11th September and open daily until Sunday 11th October. For more information CLICK HERE  Barbara Hepworth is a towering figure is British twentieth century art. Her work is immediately recognisable, widely accessible around Britain and very popular. However this very popularity has, perhaps, been partly responsible for the poor reviews the critics have given this show. Sadly there are some in the art world who see success as a sell out but, as this exhibition shows, Hepworth was anything but. The exhibition falls into a series of different rooms which look at various aspects of her development as an artist. In the first, her work is shown among that of her contemporaries and her two husbands (both artists) John Skeaping and Ben Nicholson. Here too are pieces by Henry Moore, her fellow student, Bernard Epstein, Eric Gill and others.The result is a mouthwatering selection of the best of 1920s and 1930s sculpture. Her early work here shows a great feeling for the human form and for wood carving. Her figures are strong and yet embed with human frailty. In the second room her sense of abstracted form comes bursting through. The cutting away (literally) of unwanted detail, the placing of forms in relation to each other and the emergence of eloquent ideal images. Drawn from the standing stones of Cornwall’s Penrith Peninsula the shapes we have come to know as pure Hepworth have their genesis here.  In the third room she branches in two new directions. Here are the gorgeous, minimal paintings of surgeons in operating theatres rendered on paper in ink, oil, wax and pencil. Here too are sculptures which begin her epic exploration of voids. Wood and stone is carved and pierced in pursuit of the rhythms of the sea, of the dimpled stones in underground caverns, of the mystery of those Cornish subterranean buildings, the fougous.  The last room is split into sections: a film of her life in St Ives comes first, last is a collection of bronzes from the last years of her life, but the middle section is the climax. On four plinths are sculptures of huge chunks of African hardwood, brown and shiny and conkers without, carved and white painted within. It is like walking into a modernist Stonehenge - and you feel in the presence of greatness. I came away with refreshed and moved. Here was an artist who could have been successful in any one of three careers: figurative sculptor, painter and abstract sculptor. She chose the last and, like all great artists, changed how we see the world. In the process influenced my work in many ways, particularly in finding and refining the essential shape of things. Here are a couple of examples.
I would urge you to see the show. It’s a very different experience to a visit to her St Ives studio. It’s very different to viewing her work outdoors at the Yorkshire Sculpture Park. But it’s a chance to see some of her best sculptures, paintings and, most importantly, thought processes.
Details: Tate Britain 24 June – 25 October 2015 Free for Tate Members Adult £18.00 (without donation £16.30) Concession £16.00 (without donation £14.50) Under 12s go free (up to four per parent or guardian). Family tickets available Links: http://www.tate.org.uk/whats-on/tate-britain/exhibition/barbara-hepworth-sculpture-modern-world http://www.tate.org.uk/visit/tate-st-ives/barbara-hepworth-museum  North Yorkshire Open Studios will be happening very some. To see the pictures I will be showing, and for further details, CLICK HERE
I’ve recently produced a new limited edition print of one of Yorkshire’s most iconic buildings, the beautiful Ribblehead Viaduct. Build in a forbidding landscape renowned for its high winds, the viaduct had to be constructed over a peat bog.
I’ve chosen to paint using a sombre palette and a technique which celebrates the heavy weather over which the navvies triumphed. The 16” x 12” print, which is in a limited edition of 50 copies is for sale at Artfinder for £59. CLICK HERE to buy the print.
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