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I'm just gearing up to teach a series of art workshops at Artison, just outside Masham in the Yorkshire Dales. I've been teaching art for many years. First in art clubs and then through running courses in Masham. Eventually four of us got together and set up Artison to be a teaching centre for excellence in arts and crafts. Its now run by the excellent Sue Palin and Gaynor Pearson who invite me along each year to teach painting and printmaking. So what's coming up in the near future?
Essential Watercolour
Friday, 1st March 2013, 10:00 am to 4:00 pm
Price: £65.00
A comprehensive grounding in the principles of using watercolour. Suitable for beginners or for any artist who wishes to go back to basics.
I love teaching this course. I cover everything you need to know to start working with watercolour:
the principles of watercolour painting, the equipment and materials and the key skills required.
Friday, 1st March 2013, 10:00 am to 4:00 pm
Price: £65.00
A comprehensive grounding in the principles of using watercolour. Suitable for beginners or for any artist who wishes to go back to basics.
I love teaching this course. I cover everything you need to know to start working with watercolour:
the principles of watercolour painting, the equipment and materials and the key skills required.
Painting With Inks
Friday, 19th April 2013, 10:00 am to 4:00 pm
Acrylic ink, Indian ink, fountain pen and sepia inks give strong colours, interesting textures and are easy to use with brush and pen.
There are lots of different kinds of ink around these days and they are a great way to bridge different media. If you're a watercolourist then there are a host of techniques you can bring to working with inks. If you're an oil or acrylic artist the ability to create impervious layers of ink will appeal to you. And the colours you can achieve are gorgeous.
Friday, 19th April 2013, 10:00 am to 4:00 pm
Acrylic ink, Indian ink, fountain pen and sepia inks give strong colours, interesting textures and are easy to use with brush and pen.
There are lots of different kinds of ink around these days and they are a great way to bridge different media. If you're a watercolourist then there are a host of techniques you can bring to working with inks. If you're an oil or acrylic artist the ability to create impervious layers of ink will appeal to you. And the colours you can achieve are gorgeous.
Introduction To One Colour Screen Printing
Friday, 26th April 2013, 10:00 am to 4:00 pm
Screenprinting is a vibrant, flexible medium beloved of artists and craftspeople in which the print is created by pressing ink through a stencilled fabric screen. This course will introduce you to the equipment, materials and methods of this medium. Screen printing can be adapted to your own style and can be used for anything from t-shirts to fine art prints.
I first starting screen printing in the 1970s and came back to it about three years ago. Its become an indispensable part of my repertoire. I am always amazed at the fantastic things people achieve in this workshop.
Friday, 26th April 2013, 10:00 am to 4:00 pm
Screenprinting is a vibrant, flexible medium beloved of artists and craftspeople in which the print is created by pressing ink through a stencilled fabric screen. This course will introduce you to the equipment, materials and methods of this medium. Screen printing can be adapted to your own style and can be used for anything from t-shirts to fine art prints.
I first starting screen printing in the 1970s and came back to it about three years ago. Its become an indispensable part of my repertoire. I am always amazed at the fantastic things people achieve in this workshop.
If you want to book on any of these courses (which all incude an excellent home-cooked lunch) go to the Artison site: CLICK HERE
You can see lots of examples of my work in these three media by going to my page at Masham Gallery: CLICK HERE
or go to my webiste: CLICK HERE
You can see lots of examples of my work in these three media by going to my page at Masham Gallery: CLICK HERE
or go to my webiste: CLICK HERE
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I'm working away at a huge pile of stories which people have drawn my attention to about various places in the Yorkshire Dales for my exhibition at Wensley Church later this year. I'm gradually creating images for the tales as I go - this one's of Aysgarth Church where the screen from Jervaulx Abbey ended up. (if you want to know more about that have a look at this great blog on Pip's Patch.
I'm trying to find out about another story at Aysgarth: the legend that Garibaldi - the liberator and unifier of modern Italy - had his soldiers famous red shirts made at Aysgarth. The story goes that the mill had a surplus of seven thousand worsted jerseys that it couldn't shift but managed to sell them to the Italian leader after dyeing them red.
Does anyone out there know the truth of the story?
Here's a little tale that I've been writing up recently about a body that turned up near Masham a few years ago. I'm indebted to the archives of the Northern Echo for the details.
I'm trying to find out about another story at Aysgarth: the legend that Garibaldi - the liberator and unifier of modern Italy - had his soldiers famous red shirts made at Aysgarth. The story goes that the mill had a surplus of seven thousand worsted jerseys that it couldn't shift but managed to sell them to the Italian leader after dyeing them red.
Does anyone out there know the truth of the story?
Here's a little tale that I've been writing up recently about a body that turned up near Masham a few years ago. I'm indebted to the archives of the Northern Echo for the details.
The Colsterdale Man of Mystery
The Dales are a strange combination of cosy villages, rambling roads that thread through the valleys and bleak empty moorland. Walking the moors is one of my greatest pleasures but the remoteness these open spaces, studded with old coal pits, lime kilns, grouse butts and prehistoric earthworks, is sometimes brought home with a story like this one:
The gamekeeper had noticed traces of bone flecking the peat for about four years as he passed the ditch on Thorny Grange Moor, but he thought they were the remains of a long-dead sheep. When he finally had a closer look the grisly truth became apparent. The remains were of a man who would have been about sixty when he died, the time of death being around twenty-five years earlier, in 1977.
The decased was dressed in a grey suit, a white shirt, a brown and orange tie and a pair of shoes by the George Ward Boot Company. In his pockets he carried a 1958 shilling, a 1971 penny, a mortice key in a tin, and a Cadaux 600 transistor radio. At some time in the distant past he had fractured his left collar bone, two ribs, both heels and suffered from mild arthritis.
Despite all this information, a facial reconstruction and a lot of publicitythe Colsterdale Man was never identified. In one of the most pathetic press releases ever written a spokesman said: “A tooth has been retained for DNA comparisons.”
Illustration:
Colsterdale, Sunset
The Dales are a strange combination of cosy villages, rambling roads that thread through the valleys and bleak empty moorland. Walking the moors is one of my greatest pleasures but the remoteness these open spaces, studded with old coal pits, lime kilns, grouse butts and prehistoric earthworks, is sometimes brought home with a story like this one:
The gamekeeper had noticed traces of bone flecking the peat for about four years as he passed the ditch on Thorny Grange Moor, but he thought they were the remains of a long-dead sheep. When he finally had a closer look the grisly truth became apparent. The remains were of a man who would have been about sixty when he died, the time of death being around twenty-five years earlier, in 1977.
The decased was dressed in a grey suit, a white shirt, a brown and orange tie and a pair of shoes by the George Ward Boot Company. In his pockets he carried a 1958 shilling, a 1971 penny, a mortice key in a tin, and a Cadaux 600 transistor radio. At some time in the distant past he had fractured his left collar bone, two ribs, both heels and suffered from mild arthritis.
Despite all this information, a facial reconstruction and a lot of publicitythe Colsterdale Man was never identified. In one of the most pathetic press releases ever written a spokesman said: “A tooth has been retained for DNA comparisons.”
Illustration:
Colsterdale, Sunset
Paintings and Stories of the Yorkshire Dales
by Ian Scott Massie
Holy Trinity Church, Wensley, N Yorks.With kind permission of the Churches Conservation Trust
27 July – 11 August 2013
A major exhibition of new paintings based on stories from the Yorkshire Dales collected over the last two years. In addition to artwork the exhibition sees the launch of a book for children: The Penhill Giant, which is an illustrated retelling of events which took place on the hill overlooking the exhibition location. The exhibition will also see the launch of a book illustrated with new paintings created for the exhibition work which will also include a collection of Dales stories, many of which will be appearing in print for the first time.
by Ian Scott Massie
Holy Trinity Church, Wensley, N Yorks.With kind permission of the Churches Conservation Trust
27 July – 11 August 2013
A major exhibition of new paintings based on stories from the Yorkshire Dales collected over the last two years. In addition to artwork the exhibition sees the launch of a book for children: The Penhill Giant, which is an illustrated retelling of events which took place on the hill overlooking the exhibition location. The exhibition will also see the launch of a book illustrated with new paintings created for the exhibition work which will also include a collection of Dales stories, many of which will be appearing in print for the first time.
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I'm well into the text of my book on Stories from the Yorkshire Dales which will be launched at my Yorkshire Dales exhibition which is in July at Wensley church.
Because there has been a lot of interest in the stories themselves I thought I'd release a few as the exhibition gets closer.
Hope you like this one.
Because there has been a lot of interest in the stories themselves I thought I'd release a few as the exhibition gets closer.
Hope you like this one.
There’s a nice story about about Dales economics from Selside, It’s a tiny village – blink and you’ve missed it. But if you’re coming up from Horton in Ribblesdale towards the Ribblehead viaduct there’s a little barn by the side of the road where someone, years ago, put up this lovely sign saying Selside. Its right in the middle of the Three Peaks and you get a gorgeous view of Penyghent all the way up that road.
Now there’s a group of houses there that back onto the railway line and an old dear used to live in one of them, and she came up with a great way of keeping warm in winter.
Every time she had something out of a tin she would take the empty tin and put it on the back wall where the trains went by. Then, whenever one of the engines passed, the driver and fireman would chuck pieces of coal to try and knock off the tins. So then she would go out and, hey presto, free coal!
Of course the only downsides to this were that she had to remember not to put up the tins when she had her washing out, and she had to dash indoors whenever she heard a train coming to avoid get clobbered.
This is the Settle to Carlisle Railway by the way, where the very last British Rail steam train ran in August 1968 so this story has to come from before then. I don’t know what she did for fuel when they changed over to diesels.
Now there’s a group of houses there that back onto the railway line and an old dear used to live in one of them, and she came up with a great way of keeping warm in winter.
Every time she had something out of a tin she would take the empty tin and put it on the back wall where the trains went by. Then, whenever one of the engines passed, the driver and fireman would chuck pieces of coal to try and knock off the tins. So then she would go out and, hey presto, free coal!
Of course the only downsides to this were that she had to remember not to put up the tins when she had her washing out, and she had to dash indoors whenever she heard a train coming to avoid get clobbered.
This is the Settle to Carlisle Railway by the way, where the very last British Rail steam train ran in August 1968 so this story has to come from before then. I don’t know what she did for fuel when they changed over to diesels.
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I'm involved in a number of exhibitions this year. I've listed them below. Hope to see you at one of them.
To keep up to date why not "Like" me on Facebook - CLICK HERE - or "Follow" me on Twitter - CLICK HERE
To keep up to date why not "Like" me on Facebook - CLICK HERE - or "Follow" me on Twitter - CLICK HERE
Screen Prints of Cambridge
Cambridge Contemporary Art, Cambridge.
April 2013
Eight new screen prints of Cambridge, including The Bridge of Sighs (above), The Round Church and Queen’s College.
Cambridge Contemporary Art, Cambridge.
April 2013
Eight new screen prints of Cambridge, including The Bridge of Sighs (above), The Round Church and Queen’s College.
North Yorkshire Open Studios
Artison Studios, Masham, N Yorks.
8-9 June and 15 – 16 June 2013
An exhibition of a large selection of original paintings and prints at Artison, also featuring the work of Josie Beszant, Charlotte Morrion and Rosie Scott-Massie. Part of a great event which showcases artists across England’s largest county.
Artison Studios, Masham, N Yorks.
8-9 June and 15 – 16 June 2013
An exhibition of a large selection of original paintings and prints at Artison, also featuring the work of Josie Beszant, Charlotte Morrion and Rosie Scott-Massie. Part of a great event which showcases artists across England’s largest county.
Paintings and Stories of the Yorkshire Dales
Wensley Church, Wensley, N Yorks.
27 July – 11 August 2013
A major exhibition of new paintings based on stories from the Yorkshire Dales collected over the last two years. In addition to artwork the exhibition sees the launch of a book for children: The Penhill Giant, which is an illustrated retelling of events which took place on the hill overlooking the exhibition location. The exhibition will also see the launch of a book illustrated with new paintings created for the exhibition work which will also include a collection of Dales stories, many of which will be appearing in print for the first time.
By kind permission of the Churches Conservation Trust
Wensley Church, Wensley, N Yorks.
27 July – 11 August 2013
A major exhibition of new paintings based on stories from the Yorkshire Dales collected over the last two years. In addition to artwork the exhibition sees the launch of a book for children: The Penhill Giant, which is an illustrated retelling of events which took place on the hill overlooking the exhibition location. The exhibition will also see the launch of a book illustrated with new paintings created for the exhibition work which will also include a collection of Dales stories, many of which will be appearing in print for the first time.
By kind permission of the Churches Conservation Trust
Also coming up this year:
Art in the Pen
Skipton Auction Mart, Skipton, N Yorks.
17 – 18 August 2013
For one weekend Skipton Auction Mart becomes a vast art gallery with artists from across the North of England displaying work where cattle and sheep are usually sold. Always a great event with a wonderful atmosphere.
Masham Arts Festival Exhibition
St Mary’s Church, Masham, N. Yorks.
25 October – 2 November 2013
The sixth Masham Arts Festival will include, as always, an eclectic mix of events, art and craft workshops and concerts, but, at its heart, is this exhibition. Featuring thirty carefully selected artists this is always one of the best exhibtions on the British festival scene.
Simplicity Of Colour
Masham Gallery, Masham, N Yorks.
21 September - 3rd November
A stunning exploration into the power and beauty of using a single colour by myself and some wonderful printmakers: Anja Percival, Hester Cox, Margaret Morris and Janis Goodman.
Aged to Perfection
Masham Gallery, Masham, N Yorks.
16th November - 31st December - A number of artists explore finding beauty in the worn, aged and imperfect. Includes work from myself and Josie Beszant, Suzanne McIvor and Victoria Sayers amongst others.
Art in the Pen
Skipton Auction Mart, Skipton, N Yorks.
17 – 18 August 2013
For one weekend Skipton Auction Mart becomes a vast art gallery with artists from across the North of England displaying work where cattle and sheep are usually sold. Always a great event with a wonderful atmosphere.
Masham Arts Festival Exhibition
St Mary’s Church, Masham, N. Yorks.
25 October – 2 November 2013
The sixth Masham Arts Festival will include, as always, an eclectic mix of events, art and craft workshops and concerts, but, at its heart, is this exhibition. Featuring thirty carefully selected artists this is always one of the best exhibtions on the British festival scene.
Simplicity Of Colour
Masham Gallery, Masham, N Yorks.
21 September - 3rd November
A stunning exploration into the power and beauty of using a single colour by myself and some wonderful printmakers: Anja Percival, Hester Cox, Margaret Morris and Janis Goodman.
Aged to Perfection
Masham Gallery, Masham, N Yorks.
16th November - 31st December - A number of artists explore finding beauty in the worn, aged and imperfect. Includes work from myself and Josie Beszant, Suzanne McIvor and Victoria Sayers amongst others.
For further details, or to enquire about purchasing my work CLICK HERE
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An interesting news item cropped up in the papers just after New Year. A painting of the Elizabethan spymaster, Francis Walsingham, was found to have been painted over an earlier image of the Virgin and Child. The Guardian article, which appeared on 3rd January, suggested that the arch-Protestant Walsingham would have been horrified to discover that his image was floating a few millimetres above an overtly Catholic image.
Further correspondence to the paper the following day pointed out that the destruction of a Catholic image and its replacement with that of a Protestant campaigner would have delighted Walsingham – and I suspect this is true.
But how would an artist view this story? Well, a seasoned wooden panel would have too good, in material terms, not to have been reused. Any artist soon realises that painting over an existing image, which has been primed afresh, gives a wealth of interesting textures that underlie and guide the brush strokes. Also, in an historical period such as this, artists would have been painting out unsalable images and replacing them with saleable ones as fast as possible.
So I think what we’re looking at here is a result of a major cultural tsunami. A regime change has rendered a lot of paintings politically unacceptable (and therefore unmarketable), the ruling elite are leading a demand for images of the new movers and shakers, and artists have making the most of the situation.
The question is: how many more lost paintings are there under pictures painted at similar times. Quite a few, I would think.
Further correspondence to the paper the following day pointed out that the destruction of a Catholic image and its replacement with that of a Protestant campaigner would have delighted Walsingham – and I suspect this is true.
But how would an artist view this story? Well, a seasoned wooden panel would have too good, in material terms, not to have been reused. Any artist soon realises that painting over an existing image, which has been primed afresh, gives a wealth of interesting textures that underlie and guide the brush strokes. Also, in an historical period such as this, artists would have been painting out unsalable images and replacing them with saleable ones as fast as possible.
So I think what we’re looking at here is a result of a major cultural tsunami. A regime change has rendered a lot of paintings politically unacceptable (and therefore unmarketable), the ruling elite are leading a demand for images of the new movers and shakers, and artists have making the most of the situation.
The question is: how many more lost paintings are there under pictures painted at similar times. Quite a few, I would think.
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I grew up in a grimy 1950s London. Trolleybuses, dusty scarlet, huge and with lamps of gold, loomed through foggy streets. Red and silver District line trains emerged from soot caked tunnels, raising sparks on the live rail. Beside the stood Thames the towering chimneys of the Fulham gas works and Lots Road power station shoving out grey smoke and white steam. And from Paddington, Kings Cross and Euston rusty, filthy, pre-war locomotives hissed and heaved their way out of town on shining rails.
I loved it all.
When I lived in Durham in the 1970s I travelled as a musician to the dying shipyard lands of Tyneside, Teeside and Wearside, as well as deep into the Durham coalfield. I became fascinated with industrial archaeology, photographing the fast disappearing pithead gears, coke ovens and incline railways of the North East. And, on leaving university, I was fortunate enough to work at Beamish Museum, which was set up to gather the relics of Northumbria’s industrial glory days before they disappeared.
I love the challenge of portraying the energy, the smoke, the classically unlovely lines of industrial landscapes. Some of my favourite subjects have been the wonderful Tees Transporter Bridge and the Redcar steelworks – a painting of which is currently on show at the Mercer Gallery as an exhibit in the Harrogate Open exhibition.
I loved it all.
When I lived in Durham in the 1970s I travelled as a musician to the dying shipyard lands of Tyneside, Teeside and Wearside, as well as deep into the Durham coalfield. I became fascinated with industrial archaeology, photographing the fast disappearing pithead gears, coke ovens and incline railways of the North East. And, on leaving university, I was fortunate enough to work at Beamish Museum, which was set up to gather the relics of Northumbria’s industrial glory days before they disappeared.
I love the challenge of portraying the energy, the smoke, the classically unlovely lines of industrial landscapes. Some of my favourite subjects have been the wonderful Tees Transporter Bridge and the Redcar steelworks – a painting of which is currently on show at the Mercer Gallery as an exhibit in the Harrogate Open exhibition.
Redcar Steeworks
If you would like to learn to paint these amazing subjects I'm teaching a course at Artison in the near future:
Painting Industrial Landscapes
Friday, 23rd November 2012, 10:00 am to 4:00 pm
Price: £65.00
A workshop in water-soluble media which turns away from traditional landscape to look at the wide range of industrial subjects which show a different side of Britain.
To book a place CLICK HERE.
The 2013 Artison programme is now online and includes several courses which I'll be teaching. To have a look CLICK HERE
If you would like to learn to paint these amazing subjects I'm teaching a course at Artison in the near future:
Painting Industrial Landscapes
Friday, 23rd November 2012, 10:00 am to 4:00 pm
Price: £65.00
A workshop in water-soluble media which turns away from traditional landscape to look at the wide range of industrial subjects which show a different side of Britain.
To book a place CLICK HERE.
The 2013 Artison programme is now online and includes several courses which I'll be teaching. To have a look CLICK HERE
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My lovely home town of Masham in Wensleydale is hosting a terrific event on 28th October. Masham's Edwardian Town Hall is going to be full of contemporary craft makers showing work, demonstrating techniques and encouraging visitors to try their hand at a range of craft skills.
Pole lathe turning demonstrated by Chris Helliwell.
Crafted by Hand is sponsored by The Masham Gallery - a leading art and craft gallery - and Artison - an innovative provider of great art and craft workshops. The event runs from 10 till 4 on 28th October. Entrance costs a paltry £1.50, there is ample free parking and excellent tea,coffee and cakes are available all day.
For complete details go to Creative Masham's website - CLICK HERE
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"I’m not an abstractionist. I’m not interested in the relationship of color or form or anything else. I’m interested only in expressing basic human emotions: tragedy, ecstasy, doom, and so on."
Mark Rothko
Mark Rothko
Yesterday a man sat gazing at a painting by Mark Rothko at Tate Modern. After a while he took out a bottle of paint and a brush and added an illegible scrawl to a corner of the painting. Only a single word – Vladimir – was recognisable. Under the gaze of a gallery full of people he left and, so far, has not been found by the police.
The painting was one of a series created by Rothko in the 1960s to hang in the restaurant of New York’s Seagram building. Rothko had grown increasingly unhappy with the commission (probably realising that he was pouring his feelings into creating high class wallpaper) and, instead, generously gave the works to the Tate Gallery. For many years they hung in what is now Tate Britain at a time when his work was largely ignored (it was seen very much as an outmoded experiment in 1950s abstract expressionism) before commercial forces rehabilitated his work in the 1990s when it became, once more, “cool”.
The painting was one of a series created by Rothko in the 1960s to hang in the restaurant of New York’s Seagram building. Rothko had grown increasingly unhappy with the commission (probably realising that he was pouring his feelings into creating high class wallpaper) and, instead, generously gave the works to the Tate Gallery. For many years they hung in what is now Tate Britain at a time when his work was largely ignored (it was seen very much as an outmoded experiment in 1950s abstract expressionism) before commercial forces rehabilitated his work in the 1990s when it became, once more, “cool”.
White Stripe, oil on canvas
Living twenty miles from London and loving the Tate Gallery, I would often find myself alone with Rothko’s wonderful pictures absorbing the deep colours and fractured boundaries between the floating veils of pale paint, finding a place of peace and an inner sense of self. For me these paintings did everything great art should be able to do.
I was fascinated by Rothko’s work and eventually produced a series of works in a tribute to his style, one of which, Four Meditations, became a successful print.
Living twenty miles from London and loving the Tate Gallery, I would often find myself alone with Rothko’s wonderful pictures absorbing the deep colours and fractured boundaries between the floating veils of pale paint, finding a place of peace and an inner sense of self. For me these paintings did everything great art should be able to do.
I was fascinated by Rothko’s work and eventually produced a series of works in a tribute to his style, one of which, Four Meditations, became a successful print.
Four Meditations, gouache on paper
However, it appeared that Vladimir was not the only critic of Rothko’s style. After the print had been in circulation for a few years an American blog appeared – a sort of art list – which named Four Meditations as the worst painting of the year. The reviewer heaped scorn on the work and also bemoaned the fact that some sucker had paid “thousands of dollars” for the painting. Quite apart from the fact that it had never sold (I still have it in the studio) I was puzzled why anyone should want to criticise the work but began to get the smallest inkling of how Rothko's sensitivity blossomed into full scale paranoia when much of the American art establishment turned their fire on him.
A few years ago the printmaker Hester Cox gave me a beautiful book about Rothko’s last years. As depression and paranoia consumed him the colours and life bled out of the paintings. The luminous, ragged shapes give way to plain fields of greys and blacks divided by a single bleak line. Inevitably he painted himself psychologically into a corner from which suicide was the only way out. His death robbed us of an artist who could connect the medieval mystical art of cathedral shadows with trascendant abstract colour fields on the white walls of modern galleries, bringing meditation and introspection into the blinding rush of a contemporary metropolis.
And now his his work has been deliberately damaged by a stranger’s handiwork as Velazquez’s Rokeby Venus and Rembrandt’s Night Watch have been in the past. If only the passion to damage and debase art were channelled into the creation of new, enlightening, original work the world would be enriched. Might Vladimir consider this before taking out his bottle and brush again? Unfortunately I doubt it.
However, it appeared that Vladimir was not the only critic of Rothko’s style. After the print had been in circulation for a few years an American blog appeared – a sort of art list – which named Four Meditations as the worst painting of the year. The reviewer heaped scorn on the work and also bemoaned the fact that some sucker had paid “thousands of dollars” for the painting. Quite apart from the fact that it had never sold (I still have it in the studio) I was puzzled why anyone should want to criticise the work but began to get the smallest inkling of how Rothko's sensitivity blossomed into full scale paranoia when much of the American art establishment turned their fire on him.
A few years ago the printmaker Hester Cox gave me a beautiful book about Rothko’s last years. As depression and paranoia consumed him the colours and life bled out of the paintings. The luminous, ragged shapes give way to plain fields of greys and blacks divided by a single bleak line. Inevitably he painted himself psychologically into a corner from which suicide was the only way out. His death robbed us of an artist who could connect the medieval mystical art of cathedral shadows with trascendant abstract colour fields on the white walls of modern galleries, bringing meditation and introspection into the blinding rush of a contemporary metropolis.
And now his his work has been deliberately damaged by a stranger’s handiwork as Velazquez’s Rokeby Venus and Rembrandt’s Night Watch have been in the past. If only the passion to damage and debase art were channelled into the creation of new, enlightening, original work the world would be enriched. Might Vladimir consider this before taking out his bottle and brush again? Unfortunately I doubt it.
If you would like to receive my monthly newsletter on art, artists and exhibitions (October's edition is in preparation) please CLICK HERE to visit my Facebook page and press the "Sign up for my Newsletter" button.
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Over the last few months I've been out walking, sketching and photographing in the Yorkshire Dales working on ideas for an exhibition based on stories from the Dales which will be happening in July 2013. Inevitably this has taken me through the area known as the Three Peaks - a triangle of high country ringed by the hills of Whernside, Ingleborough and Penyghent. Running though the centre of this fabulous landscape is the Ribblehead Viaduct - the mighiest structure on the Settle to Carlisle railway.
Whernside
Ingleborough
Penyghent
I first came to this place on the day I was introduced to the Dales. I was being taken down my first pot hole! The Three Peaks area is honeycombed with caves and I was being initiated into the art of speleology (that's caving) by a couple of enthusiasts. Driving from Durham we left the A1 at Scotch Corner and passed through Richmond. Then we made our way up Swaledale, crossed into Wensleydale and finally stopped at Horton in Ribblesdale. I was knocked out by the beauty of the countryside that day - the shape of the land, the meandering drystone walls, the tiny barns - and have stayed that way ever since. For the last twenty five years I have lucky enough to live in this wonderful landscape.
Over the years I have painted the Three Peaks several times, usually mounting the three images in one frame, as I have done with the latest set, shown above.
Every day people walk, cycle and run the Three Peaks, often clocking in and out at the time clock in the cafe at Horton. The three hills offer amazing views and have entirely different characters.
Below is a smaller set which I painting while planning the larger version.
CLICK HERE to enquire about buying The Three Peaks.
Over the years I have painted the Three Peaks several times, usually mounting the three images in one frame, as I have done with the latest set, shown above.
Every day people walk, cycle and run the Three Peaks, often clocking in and out at the time clock in the cafe at Horton. The three hills offer amazing views and have entirely different characters.
Below is a smaller set which I painting while planning the larger version.
CLICK HERE to enquire about buying The Three Peaks.
Whernside
Ingleborough
Penyghent
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I'm lucky enough to live in North Yorkshire - a county rich in beautiful landscapes and also in beautiful buildings. We have some of the best ruins - Fountains Abbey, Byland Abbey and - above - Richond Castle. There are some wonderful industrial buildings, like the Abbey Mill at Studley Royal - below - which has been in continual use for a jaw-dropping eight hundred years, and the county is also littered with stately homes of every age and style.
This one, below, is just outside my home town of Masham. Swinton Castle is now a luxury hotel with a very interesting history.
Swinton originally belonged to Henry Scrope. He was charged with plotting to murder Henry V at Southampton just before the king was due to sail for France. Scrope was beheaded and Henry went on to his victory at Agincourt, giving
one of his greatest hits. The existing Swinton Castle was built in the Tudor period and then, in the late 18th Century, the Tudor building was wrapped in a Georgian facade. Battlements, wings and a tower completed the ensemble.
It's a building I draw and paint a lot and its one of the subjects I'll be taking students to on the course: Drawing & Painting Architecture at Artison in September.
We're going to look at, learn about and draw some other buildings in the Masham area and along the way I'll be dispensing tips on drawing, getting proportions right and perspective.
Swinton originally belonged to Henry Scrope. He was charged with plotting to murder Henry V at Southampton just before the king was due to sail for France. Scrope was beheaded and Henry went on to his victory at Agincourt, giving
one of his greatest hits. The existing Swinton Castle was built in the Tudor period and then, in the late 18th Century, the Tudor building was wrapped in a Georgian facade. Battlements, wings and a tower completed the ensemble.
It's a building I draw and paint a lot and its one of the subjects I'll be taking students to on the course: Drawing & Painting Architecture at Artison in September.
We're going to look at, learn about and draw some other buildings in the Masham area and along the way I'll be dispensing tips on drawing, getting proportions right and perspective.
If you'd like to book a place on the course CLICK HERE.
If you would like to enquire about purchasing any of the pictures above CLICK HERE.
If you would like to enquire about purchasing any of the pictures above CLICK HERE.