Welcome

Thank you for visiting my website. If you prefer to see before you buy, I can reserve paintings until you can visit. Visits to my rather untidy home studio are by appointment only.

People who buy my paintings are those who share my love of art and of North Yorkshire: its coast, woodlands and moors. My approach to painting is primarily contemplative, naturalistic yet stylised, looking for the beauty and peace one experiences when immersed in Nature.

You can see my work in a few galleries in North Yorkshire. Please see the “Galleries & Exhibitions” page, and check their details for opening days and times.

I should be preparing for Staithes Art Fest, but my brushes won’t be put down. After the large paintings I did earlier this summer, I turned back to smaller canvases, some may be dry for Staithes weekend…

Skinningrove is a tiny village, North of Staithes, with a rich industrial heritage. It is now a quiet place, except on 5th November, Bonfire Night, when a large wooden sculpture constructed by volunteers is set alight on the sea shore. Each year a different theme is chosen. It is quite stunning.

There, beyond the pier, is one of the most wonderful beaches on this coast. Unusually for this area, reknowned for its cliffs and pebble shores, at Cattersty Sands the land slopes towards the sea. Soft green curves , running into sand dunes and wild flowers, easing into clean sand… The warm weather this weekend reminds me to show you the two paintings I started over a month ago, on a similar warm evening. The quiet majesty of Nature. Warmth, peace, water. Gratitude for being here, and now.

These paintings will be first exhibited at Staithes Art Festival, 6th to 8th September 2019. https://www.staithesfestival.com/festival/

If you are in North Yorkshire, I will be taking part in Staithes Art Festival, 6th to 8th September 2019. I will be in Cottage 4a, Northside, near the Lifeboat, exhibiting with the excellent glass artist Ailsa Nicholson. I hope you can be there. Parking is at the top of the village. There will be a free taxi shuttle from the Athletics Club and the War Memorial between 8pm and 10pm on Friday and Saturday evenings (preview Friday from 7pm til 10pm, do drop in!) and between 10am and 5.30pm on Sat & Sunday. You can read more about the festival and the hundred artists taking part here: https://www.staithesfestival.com/festival/

Some miles inland, near Goathland, is the tiny village of Beck Hole. Once a thriving and busy ironstone mining site, now only a few houses remain, including a pub, the Birch Hall Inn. It is very traditional, a bit like stepping back 70 years (or so I imagine), stirring all the nostalgic strings… I went there recently to look at the archeological excavations of the old tramway site, before they are covered again to preserve them. One could see the remnants of the blacksmith’s forge and the adjoining stables for the ponys. It is so strange to think of so many people living and working in this small valley… To me BeckHole is essentially, exquisitely English. A treasured industrial heritage, a small and close community centered around a pub, a stone bridge over a winding river, lovely cottages, pretty gardens full of flowers, a small orchard in which each tree was adopted and cared for by one of the local children… Yet this tiny hamlet is visited by many from near and far, and one is welcomed as a friend. BeckHole holds such strong memories of long walks on summer afternoons that I have spent the last couple of weeks working on these two paintings. This is North Yorkshire. I fell in love with it decades ago, and I love it still.

http://www.beckhole.info/home.htm

P.S. 23 August. Here are the finished paintings.