Spring 2024
I recently moved out of my Skipton studio, so am now based at West Yorkshire Print Workshop in Mirfield for my etching practice and home in Malhamdale for painting. I won't be participating in the 2024 North Yorkshire Open Studios events after all, my apologies for any confusion.
I'm beginning to produce new, Arctic themed work inspired by last summer's trip to Svalbard. I'm following that up this year with a sailing trip in the far North-West of Scotland, from Ullapool to Orkney via St Kilda in late May. Again, I'll be taking pencils, pastels and watercolours to sketch while I'm away, then working from my sketches and photos to produce new work in the studio. In the meantime, I've got plenty of local inspiration here in the Dales.
My next local exhibition is 'Art in the Dale' at St Michael the Archangel in Kirby Malham. This has become an annual, artistic celebration of nature and creativity by a group of local artists and makers in Malhamdale. The 2024 exhibition opens on Thursday 20 June and is open 9am to 5pm daily, closing on Sunday 23 June 2024.
I am adding my latest etchings to this website and unframed etchings are available directly from here. If you can't wait, the WYPW gallery in Mirfield and Sunny Bank Mills Gallery in Farsley have unframed etchings of mine for sale. I've also got framed etchings of Dales and Cairngorms scenes for sale at the lovely Hope Gallery in Hebden Bridge.
Arctic Expedition, August 2023
I travelled way North last summer: to Svalbard, then across the Arctic Sea to Iceland for inspiration. A 'wilderness camp' by kayak and on foot with Svalbard Wildlife Expeditions enable me to see the glaciers and mountains at close quarters and catch some glimpses of local wildlife including polar bears, arctic fox and walrus. I then sailed on the Rubicon3 yacht 'Hummingbird' 1,000nm across the Arctic Ocean to Iceland. We passed the tiny Jan Mayen Island en route but foggy conditions meant we couldn't land.
North Yorkshire Open Studios - June and Dec 2023
A big thank you to everyone that visited my studio at Craven Arts House in Skipton in the 2023 North Yorkshire Open Studios events. I had a display of my work and information about etching, printmaking and my creative process. Many interesting and encouraging conversations were had, I particularly liked the visitor that styled me 'the Norman Ackroyd of the Dales'! I was delighted and honoured to be compared to that master of artistic printmaking.
I now have unframed etchings available as well as paintings and giclee prints. I sourced acid-free mount board and plant-based wrapping to protect my unframed work but keep my carbon footprint down. I use oil-based inks, but these are cleaned up with vegetable oil.
Rosenstiels:
My original paintings were very well looked after and are back in stock with me, still available for sale. Rosenstiels now have beautiful fine art prints available of my images!
Six of my original oil paintings had a short holiday down to the production offices of the fine art publisher Rosenstiels. They have produced fine art prints of those six paintings from very high resolution images taken by their experts. Rosenstiels sell worldwide and can reach a much wider market with their high quality fine art prints than I ever could.
