October 16th 2012

Since the start of October, I have spent 4 days promoting my work in the North Yorkshire area - specifically around York and up beyond Castle Howard towards the North York Moors. Some simple observations....getting colder....I think it's quite similar to the Cotswolds in terms of landscape and architecture. It's a stunning part of the country - no doubt about that.

Thinking ahead over the coming winter, I am going to do some painting on-location in various places around Halifax. Hebden Bridge is the first place I intend to visit - just need to wait for the right weather conditions. I'm hoping for a fairly mild autumnal day - there's a spot called Hardcastle Crags which will be perfect for some outdoor painting. The plan will be to produce prints from any paintings that I complete and maybe establish some links with galleries in the area who may be interested in exhibiting my work.

I'm hoping to collect some great winter photographs over the next couple of weeks and choose a selection of them to work up into paintings. This will hopefully be part of an exhibition that I'm putting on at some point in December. It's all a bit sketchy at the moment though as I don't have a venue or anything organised yet!

I met a well established artist in Wixley, North Yorkshire a few weeks ago. Neil Simone. I came across his home/gallery and went and introduced myself. He showed me one of his latest commissions which coincidentally was a house portrait in Malvern, not far from where I'm from. We had an interesting chat and when I got back home, I e mailed him to ask if he had any advice for an artist like myself. He got back to me and said he would be happy to send me a copy of his book 'Memoirs of an Artist' which document his career over the past 30 years or so. Thought that was good of him.

Luddenden House Portrait

Since moving to Halifax just over a year ago, I've worked on a lot of commissions
from the Yorkshire area which I would not have done had I not moved. This is one
such commission. Not far from my studio, this location is Luddenden which is a
particularly picturesque village just outside Halifax. This house is situated on
quite a steep hill with spectacular views - partly visible to the left of the house
in the painting. I worked on this painting in my studio from a photograph which I
took earlier in the year. It took a couple of visits to get the best photo to ensure
that the lighting was just right. The very distinctive stone, has a completely
different appearance with direct sunlight on it and I wanted to make sure I captured
this. Very satisfied with the finished result here.