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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.
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.
Addleborough
Ingleborough
Ribblehead Viaduct
The High Country
is at Herriot's Gallery, Hawes
from 21st May to June 18th.
For more details CLICK HERE.
If you'd like to try your hand at watercolour landscape painting I'm running a four week course at Artison studios, just outside Masham. I'll be covering basic watercolour techniques and then showing how to use them to capture the character of the landscape.
To book a place CLICK HERE.
To book a place CLICK HERE.
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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.
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"
3 colour screen print
11" x 7"
Under The Stars
3 colour screen print
11" x 7"
3 colour screen print
11" x 7"
And All I Ask Is A Tall Ship
3 colour screen print
11" x 7"
3 colour screen print
11" x 7"
- Published on
Elegy, Masham Original Watercolour & Gouache
Well its the turning of the year here in Masham in Yorkshire but, instead of some winters when we've been knee deep in snow, its just a grey rainy day.
So I've been working away at some changes to my website - putting up details of the next exhibitions coming up, scanning and photographing work for some new picture pages and deleting the details of 2013's events.
Its been a great year. I finished my book Tales of the Dales in time for the exhibition of the same name in the summer and also my children's book The Penhill Giant.
The weather was mixed for much of the year but I managed some great painting trips.
So many people gave me new stories during the Tales of the Dales that I've started working on a new book and I've got some new paintings planned for my next exhibition in May.
Here are the links if you want to catch up with what's coming in 2014:
New paintings and prints pages:
http://www.ianscottmassie.com/pictures-for-sale.html
For details of the books:
http://www.ianscottmassie.com/books.html
For next year's exhibitions:
http://www.ianscottmassie.com/future-exhibitions.html
So I've been working away at some changes to my website - putting up details of the next exhibitions coming up, scanning and photographing work for some new picture pages and deleting the details of 2013's events.
Its been a great year. I finished my book Tales of the Dales in time for the exhibition of the same name in the summer and also my children's book The Penhill Giant.
The weather was mixed for much of the year but I managed some great painting trips.
So many people gave me new stories during the Tales of the Dales that I've started working on a new book and I've got some new paintings planned for my next exhibition in May.
Here are the links if you want to catch up with what's coming in 2014:
New paintings and prints pages:
http://www.ianscottmassie.com/pictures-for-sale.html
For details of the books:
http://www.ianscottmassie.com/books.html
For next year's exhibitions:
http://www.ianscottmassie.com/future-exhibitions.html
- Published on
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.
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
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
- Published on
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.
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
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
Vic Sayers
Suzanne McIvor
Josie Beszant
Alice Fox
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These are my paintings and prints for this year's Masham Arts Festival exhibition.
The Festival exhibition is at
St. Mary's Church, Masham, open daily from
26th October - 2nd November
10am - 4pm
(except Sunday morning)
It features around 30 of the North's best artists, all of whom have been specially selected for this show.
If you would be interested in any of these CLICK HERE.
The Festival exhibition is at
St. Mary's Church, Masham, open daily from
26th October - 2nd November
10am - 4pm
(except Sunday morning)
It features around 30 of the North's best artists, all of whom have been specially selected for this show.
If you would be interested in any of these CLICK HERE.
Masham Market Place, Screen Print, 20" x 16", £179
Ribblehead Viaduct, Watercolour, 28" x 21", £595
Masham from High Burton, Watercolour & Indian Ink, 20" x 10",£245
The Christmas Angel, Screen Print, 16" x 12", £149
Masham from Hackfall, Mixed Media, 20" x 16", £295
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Tales of the Dales, which was initially shown at Wensley Church in July and August opens for a three month run in the lovely Dover Gallery at Farfield Mill on October 5th.
The exhibition comprises over sixty framed and unframed paintings and prints - including four new original paintings. The framed work is accompanied by the stories behind each of the images which you can read as you walk through the show, including a story about Farfield Mill.
Also in the exhibition are copies of the book Tales of the Dales, which includes all the stories, accompanied by the paintings they inspired, and a set of four greetings cards of Penyghent, Ingleborough, Penhill and Wild Boar Fell.
Farfield Mill was built by Joseph Dover in 1837 - probably the first Victorian mill to exist since that was the year the future “Mrs Brown” came to the throne. The mill was driven by a huge waterwheel powered by the dammed waters of the River Clough. The mill spun wool, wove cloth and sent out wool to handloom weavers in the area.
After a hundred years of prosperity the mill was sold and never acheived full production again despite a number of schemes including weaving Yorkshire tweed and fashioning crankshafts for aero engines.
One of Farfield’s oddest claims to fame is the story of one of its employees: William Stainton. Although stories are often told of the tough times our forefathers faced, few individuals have such an impressive CV. Starting work at the age of eight, William’s mill career comprised an incredible eighty-six years. He clocked out from his final shift at the age of ninety-four.
The exhibition comprises over sixty framed and unframed paintings and prints - including four new original paintings. The framed work is accompanied by the stories behind each of the images which you can read as you walk through the show, including a story about Farfield Mill.
Also in the exhibition are copies of the book Tales of the Dales, which includes all the stories, accompanied by the paintings they inspired, and a set of four greetings cards of Penyghent, Ingleborough, Penhill and Wild Boar Fell.
Farfield Mill was built by Joseph Dover in 1837 - probably the first Victorian mill to exist since that was the year the future “Mrs Brown” came to the throne. The mill was driven by a huge waterwheel powered by the dammed waters of the River Clough. The mill spun wool, wove cloth and sent out wool to handloom weavers in the area.
After a hundred years of prosperity the mill was sold and never acheived full production again despite a number of schemes including weaving Yorkshire tweed and fashioning crankshafts for aero engines.
One of Farfield’s oddest claims to fame is the story of one of its employees: William Stainton. Although stories are often told of the tough times our forefathers faced, few individuals have such an impressive CV. Starting work at the age of eight, William’s mill career comprised an incredible eighty-six years. He clocked out from his final shift at the age of ninety-four.
The exhibition continues until January 5th 2014.
Farfield Mill is open 7 days a week: Mill: 10.30 - 5, cafe 10.00 - 5.00
The mill houses a wonderful mixture of artists' studios, mill machinery, looms and a great cafe. Among artists resident at the Mill are Rebecca Callis, Laura Rosenzweig and Helene Shovlar. Their work is lovely - don't miss them!
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I was looking at some 1920s railway posters recently and I really liked the way light is used in a lot of them. I'd wanted to do a print of Masham Market Place for a while and it seemed to me that this might be the approach to take and in keeping with the theme of Simplicity of Colour - the title of the forthcoming Masham Gallery Exhibition. I wanted to get the feel of a late summer evening with the light streaming out of the door of the Kings Head (on the right) and the dark shape of the Market Cross pretty dead centre.
This is the watercolour sketch for the idea which helped me think about the colouring and the main elements of the picture. Although this style of work has a very flat finish I wanted it to feel as though it was a picture you could walk into.
This is the print "map" - drawn to the same size as the finished print. The numbers are where I work out the order in which each layer of colour will be printed.
This is the completed pile of fourteen prints drying in the studio. Using the reduction system of printing means that you have to print the whole edition in one go. There are usually a couple of disasters but, on this occasion, every print turned out well.
If you'd like a copy contact Masham Gallery by clicking HERE.
Simplicity of Colour is at Masham Gallery from 21st September to the 3rd of November.
If you'd like a copy contact Masham Gallery by clicking HERE.
Simplicity of Colour is at Masham Gallery from 21st September to the 3rd of November.
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I'm having a bit of an experiment.
I wrote The Penhill Giant as a sort of graphic novel for children and published it for the Tales of the Dales exhibition in August.
However I thought it might be fun to rework it as a comic strip and put it out in instalments - after all, the first thing I do when I get the morning paper is to read the cartoons. I can't be the only one!
So every day for 12 days The Penhill Giant story will appear on my Facebook page. To go there just CLICK HERE.
Here's a sample - the first strip which appeared today. Hope you enjoy them.
I wrote The Penhill Giant as a sort of graphic novel for children and published it for the Tales of the Dales exhibition in August.
However I thought it might be fun to rework it as a comic strip and put it out in instalments - after all, the first thing I do when I get the morning paper is to read the cartoons. I can't be the only one!
So every day for 12 days The Penhill Giant story will appear on my Facebook page. To go there just CLICK HERE.
Here's a sample - the first strip which appeared today. Hope you enjoy them.
- Published on
at:
The Cooper Gallery,
Church Street
Barnsley
S70 2AH
01226 242905
The Cooper Gallery,
Church Street
Barnsley
S70 2AH
01226 242905
There's an excellent exhibition by a group of printmakers opening at the Cooper Gallery in Barnsley. There are pieces by a number of printmakers including Lesley Birch, Stuart Brocklehurst, Angie Rogers and myself.
Its going to be a fascination show with printmakers who work in a wide range of media from woodcut and etching to screen printing.
Not to be missed.
A selection of my screen prints is always available through my website:
http://www.ianscottmassie.com
Its going to be a fascination show with printmakers who work in a wide range of media from woodcut and etching to screen printing.
Not to be missed.
A selection of my screen prints is always available through my website:
http://www.ianscottmassie.com
