I've got a new exhibition which opened this week: The High Country Paintings of the Pennine landscapes of the Yorkshire Dales . May 21st - June 18th. 2014 Herriot's Gallery, Hawes, North Yorkshire. DL8 3QW Opening times: 10 - 4 Sunday: 11 - 4 Wednesday: closed (Open by appointment at other times) I've been working on The High Country since last September. Its an exhibition very close to my heart because it centres on the parts of the Dales I first knew and grew to love. For me one of the greatest pleasures of living in Yorkshire is the thrill of climbing a big hill and looking at the landscape from a high viewpoint. This exhibition, thanks to the kind invitation of Glenn at Herriot's Gallery in Hawes, has given me to celebrate this in paint. To see a large selection of the paintings from the exhibition CLICK HERE
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Elvet Bridge, Durham There are certain places which draw you back and, for me, Durham is one of those. Although I haven't lived in the city since the early 1980s I return frequently, still moved by its glorious skyline which John Ruskin called the eighth wonder of the world. Elvet Bridge is old, a medieval survival, and one of the few bridges in Britain which still has houses built on it. At one end of the bridge is a dark archway - the entrance to the House of Correction - a forerunner of Durham gaol. The print is a six colour reduction screen print which shows the view from upstream of the city. This will be one of a number of prints which will be on show at Printed by Hand - part of Masham's Spring event, Crafted by Hand, on 25th and 26th of May in Masham Town Hall. For more details about Crafted by Hand CLICK HERE. Masham, Evening The second new print is a view of Masham from the East side of Wenleydale. Beyond the fifteenth century spire of St Mary's church are the hills of the Burn Valley and Colsterdale. This is the view I see most of the time when I return home. The print is an eight colour reduction screen print. If you would like to enquire about purchasing a print CLICK HERE. One of my favourite subjects over the years has been Lady Hill in Wensleydale. Driving up the Dale the road takes you through the viollage of Aysgarth and then, as you drive on towards Hawes, Ladyhill is there ahead of you. It’s very distinctive, crowned with a group of elderly Scots pines. For a long time I have been trying to find out more about the hill. It was planted with tree’s to celebrate one of Queen Vctoria’s jubilees (still not sure which one) but I had heard hints that there was more to the place than that. Ladyhill, Wensleydale Watercolour A few days ago I was teaching an art group and, during a local history discussion, an unlikely story emerged: Ladyhill used to be famous for black rabbits which were sold to the Czar of Russia. I went away and did some research on the excellent Out of Oblivion website and a few other places. There was a purpose built rabbit warren with a high enclosure wall at Ladyhill. The wall was both to keep specially-bred rabbits in and to keep local wild rabbits from getting amongst them and doing what rabbits do so well. Moon Over Ladyhill Watercolour The rabbits in the warren were a variety that was born with black fur. As they matured the fur turned to silver. Both types of pelt were farmed and sold to the hat trade – and some of them regularly went to Russia. The trade began in the eighteenth century and continued to the 1930s. The local Wensleydale Railway (parts of it are still running) was used to take the pelts away in the latter part of this business. Ladyhill Limited Edition Print I’ve recently done two paintings of Ladyhill (the ones at the top of the page) that are featured in The High Country – my next exhibition - which is at Herriot’s Gallery, Hawes from May 21st. For details CLICK HERE. I’ve also done a screen print of Ladyhill in winter and a limited edition print of Ladyhill, (above and left) both of which are available from the Masham Gallery. To contact CLICK HERE. More of my work is always available at The Masham Gallery CLICK HERE to visit Winter, Ladyhill Screen Print Before I lost my heart to art I was going to be an engineer like my father. My Dad made electricity. He ran a power station which supplied the juice for the London Underground. Occasionally, usually on a Sunday, he would take me to work with him. This was a big thrill. We would get off the train at Wembley Park, go down the slope at the end of the platform and then walk beside the tracks to Neasden power station. I found it all fascinating, from the rotating drum which emptied the coal from the railway trucks to the shiny dials of the control room, from the chemical lab where incoming coal was analysed to the huge green Parson's steam turbines which made the electricity. It was a hard decision but, having got the necessary O levels in physics, chemistry and maths, I changed horses and saddled up for a life in the arts. Something however stayed with me - a love of the grimy world of industry. On leaving Durham University I was lucky enough to get a year's placement at Beamish museum where I really got a chance to understand industrial archeology. Beamish introduced me to coal mining and gave me the opportunity to travel around the North East just as the pits, the coking plants and the rail yards were disappearing. And now, every so often, I spend a few days working on industrial subjects. To me they are as beautiful and dramatic as any natural landscape. They come wreathed in smoke, or as ruins as eloquent as any Yorkshire abbey. Among my favourite subjects are the steel works at Redcar, the bridges over the Tees and Tyne and (a nod to my London roots) the huge brick edifice of Battersea power station. The three paintings here are, from top to bottom, Battersea, Redcar and the pylons of the National Grid. If you would like to see some more I've put up a page of my industrial pictures on my website. CLICK HERE for a visit. There are also usually a few available at The Masham Gallery. CLICK HERE to visit their site. I hope you enjoy looking at the pictures as much as I enjoyed making them. When I came to Durham to study in 1973 the city captivated me: the iconic cathedral and castle, the viaduct, the churches. I had never lived anywhere hilly before, and now, everywhere I looked, I saw a series of amazing skylines. I have been fascinated by townscapes ever since: the way the angles of chimneys make shapes against the sky, the way silhouettes recede one after the other, the interplay of horizontal roofs and vertical spires. This is Durham from Western Hill Everywhere I go the repeating patterns and geometric forms create different characters - some just begging to be painted and others not quite hitting the mark. I've been thinking about it a lot recently because I'm teaching a course on townscapes this week at Artison, near Masham. So here are some of my favourites from the last few years. This is Askrigg, in Wensleydale, with Addleborough on the horizon. Its from my forthcoming exhibition at Herriot's Gallery in Hawes. More details: CLICK HERE This is Whitby. This week's course is full up but I have some other courses coming up which have vacancies: Painting With Inks Thursday, 10th April CLICK HERE to book a place Watercolour Landscapes (4 x 2.5 hour morning sessions) Thursday, 24th April 2014, 10:00 am to 12:30 pm + 24 Apr, 01, 08 and 15 May. CLICK HERE to book a place. If you're interested in any of the pictures CLICK HERE to contact me. Don't miss my Facebook page for updates on what I'm working on. CLICK HERE to get there. Over the last couple of weeks Wensleydale has been changing daily as winter moves into spring. I drove to Carperby to teach a painting group a few days ago. Carperby is on the North side of the Dale where the views across the valley are dominated by Penhill and, a little further up the Dale, to where Ladyhill stands, topped with pine trees. Ladyhill was planted with Scots pines for Queen Victoria's jubilee. Its a glacial moraine - a pile of stones dropped when a glacier slowed down - and it had another name before being called Ladyhill but no-one seems to know what it was (including the farmer whose sheep now crop the hill). This is a great time to be painting - the spring light bleaching the greys of the stone walls, the chill morning mists still hazing the vision in the valley bottoms, the sky punctuated by curlews and peewits. I'm working on an exhibition called The High Country at the moment which is mostly about the landscape around the Dale head - the Three Peaks, Ribblehead, Cam and Dodd Fells - and its a wonderful thing to fill your eyes with these iconic places and then try to capture them in paint on paper. Here are a few I've done so far for the exhibition. I hope you like them.
Over the years I've sketched and photographed dozens of old boats. I love the elegant curving shapes. I love the textures of peeling paint, weathered wood and rust. Recently I've been making some of these ideas into screen prints. I've tried to keep the shapes simple, the details to a minimum, because its the feeling of a creature out of its element that I'm interested in. I hope you like them. If you'd like to buy one they're £119 each from Masham Gallery - CLICK HERE to enquire. High and Dry 3 colour screen print 11" x 7" Under The Stars 3 colour screen print 11" x 7" And All I Ask Is A Tall Ship 3 colour screen print 11" x 7"
There are some beautiful skies - morning and evening - at this time of year in the North of England. The colours are just amazing and often have me reaching for a favourite poem - Elegy in a Country Churchyard. Written by Thomas Gray at a church on the outskirts of Slough, where I spent my teenage years, its images have resonated in my imagination for a long time. The curfew tolls the knell of parting day, The lowing herd wind slowly o'er the lea, The plowman homeward plods his weary way, And leaves the world to darkness and to me. Now fades the glimm'ring landscape on the sight, And all the air a solemn stillness holds, Save where the beetle wheels his droning flight, And drowsy tinklings lull the distant folds; Save that from yonder ivy-mantled tow'r The moping owl does to the moon complain Of such, as wand'ring near her secret bow'r, Molest her ancient solitary reign. Beneath those rugged elms, that yew-tree's shade, Where heaves the turf in many a mould'ring heap, Each in his narrow cell for ever laid, The rude forefathers of the hamlet sleep. I like the five beat rhythm of the lines, the language (solemn stillness,drowsy tinklings) but above all I like it because I when I stand in a country churchyard I think and feel so many of the same things. Although Gray was writing in the eighteenth century churchyards are not so very different now. If you want to read the whole thing CLICK HERE If you want to visit Gray's churchyard this is the postcode: SL2 4NZ Paintings: Hawkshead, watercolour by Ian Scott Massie (above) Masham, Late Autumn, open edition print by Ian Scott Massie (left) both available from Masham Gallery To visit CLICK HERE I was recently invited to show some work in a new exhibition at Masham Gallery which sets out to find beauty in the worn, aged and imperfect. The title of the show is Aged to Perfection and it opens on November 16th. Yesterday, however, I got a sneak preview of the work and it's one of the most stunning exhibitions I've seen for a while. The images vary from Alice Fox's rust stained, water marked abstract creations, through Suzanne McIvor's gorgeous studies of worn, tessellated floors to Victoria Brookland's fantasias around dresses which seem alive, haunted and organic. The exhibition also includes some of the lovely creations of Josie Beszant - housed like ancient treasure in their glass reliquary boxes - which intrigue the eye and tease the imagination with narratives woven from old photographs, intricately worked and transformed paper and fabric, and a cast of diverse symbols and signposts. Vic Sayers's work reflects back onto these images with a ruined house in a overgrown landscape ,a pair of red wellington boots in an empty hallway, a sagging, tangled barbed wire fence. And my own contribution of ruined walls, an abandoned boat, a stand of aging pine trees completes the exhibition. Don't be tempted to think that this makes for a dreary show - far from it. The room fizzes with energy, the images are strong and the show is a tour de force - a perfect combination of artists working on parallel lines. Aged to Perfection is at Masham Gallery until 31st December. For more information CLICK HERE. To see my work from the show CLICK HERE |
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