All the Little Things — Hebden Bridge

So along with people who have bought summer seating, spring clothes and barbecues, I have probably contributed to the snow this week as I decided at the beginning I would write a blog about my Spring paintings.. About this time last year when lockdown was all weird and new, the sun came out. I remember delivering local orders; walking paths I had never trodden with my phone in hand, optimistically following arrows. The woods were full of blue..  At the same time I was commissioned to paint some bluebell woods. It was such a lovely painting to do for the...

I am easing back into working in my studio. I feel so blessed to have it; the windows are amazing. Obviously with lockdown it felt better to work at home, because I have a desk there and don't need much else. But I had a few collections to be there for, so I am enjoying the light, the blossom outside my window and the goldfinches at my bird feeder!  I have been in the studio about six years I think! It came about because I was looking for a place to teach my art classes. I knew the amazing Hannah Nunn...

The idea of forests as a child was tangled in fairytales for me. The woods at the back of my friend's house a place of mystery and danger. This feeling was carried into my college years due to reading Angela Carter's "The Bloody Chamber". These twisted versions of already dark stories set my imagination off and I filled sketchbooks with these tales. Much later I started drawing woodlands and bears; my first screen prints after a long break.  I had moved to Hebden Bridge and rather than the woods being places of trepidation they were places to calm my mind....

Like most people in my home town of Hebden Bridge I have been enjoying the snow. The valley looks so beautiful under white blankets and an array of blues. On wintery walks I have been taking lots of photographs and just started getting into a routine of choosing one everyday to draw; blocking in the shadows with watercolour to be sketched on later. It has felt a lovely process and the drawings have been quite free and feel less overworked.. Can you tell I fell in love with the Texel sheep? A lot of these drawings are from a lovely...