Venturing out of the Studio

The summer is over and we're well into autumn. I've been stuck in the studio ploughing my may through my order book. There's been no promotional work for over a month now and I've needed to get out for a change of scene.

Having recently moved to Halifax in West Yorkshire, I've been waiting for the right time to go and photograph the local area. The countryside around Halifax is stunning and lends itself well to watercolour painting. Great views across open moorland, hills, valleys, old stone buildings. Last week Lucy and I dropped our eldest off at nursery and took off in the car with the baby on a sunny afternoon. Camera in hand we went looking for some subject matter to paint. Ending up in a village called Oxenhope, just north of Halifax, got some great photos and will have some finished watercolours from these photos to showcase in the next few weeks.

Gift Certificates

One year ago, my idea for a gift certificate was launched and due to its success, I’ve decided to give it another push.

The Gift Certificate can be purchased as a unique gift which would entitle the recipient to commission an original piece of artwork from myself. It consists of a certificate explaining what the holder is entitled to and additional information about myself, as the artist, some examples of my portfolio and an explanation about the commissioning procedure.



Can you think of anyone for whom this would make the perfect gift? Do you have someone to buy for, who it seems already has everything? Or someone who is notoriously hard to buy for? If so this could be your solution.

The price is determined by the size of the art work:

15 x 21cm £80
20 x 30cm £160
30 x 40cm £240
60 x 40cm £360

As you would expect with a unique gift such as this, the Gift Certificate includes all aspects of the work including mounting, framing and delivery. Contact me directly for further information or to place an order.

pete@petechapple.co.uk
07792 553 273

Christmas Cards

Christmas Cards

A few months ago, I wrote to my contacts inviting them to send wintery photographs which I could create paintings from to be used as Christmas cards. I was pleasantly surprised by the response, with over 100 great images being submitted. from these, I decided that the best four would be chosen and made into cards.

The paintings have now been completed. The cards printed and ready for distribution.

WIN 50 CHRISTMAS CARDS
If you have a twitter account follow me @petechapple and copy this into a new tweet:
New Christmas Card collection now available from @petechapple www.petechapple.blogspot.com/2011/11/christmas-cards.html

and/or if you subscribe to facebook, send me a friend request ‘Peter Chapple’ and update your status with the following ‘New Christmas Card collection now available from Pete Chapple www.petechapple.blogspot.com/2011/11/christmas-cards.html

On Monday 7th November one person we will be selected at random to receive 50 of my new cards.

These are the final four photographs that were chosen together with the completed paintings:












These are the cards:



A few weeks ago I attended the One in a million charity awards fundraising dinner in Bradford and was amazed by the inspirational work that this organisation does and the positive influence it has on the lives of young people from one of the nations most deprived areas. I wanted this project to contribute in some way to this charity and so £1 from each pack of cards sold will be given to One in a Million. See www.oneinamillion.org.uk for more information

Prices
Each pack comprises 5 of each design
£11 per pack of 20 cards + Postage
£9 per pack when ordering 5 or more packs + Postage

Postage
1 pack £1.23
2 packs £2.61
3-5 packs £4.41

The cards are A6 in size printed on to high quality 350gsm card with ‘Merry Christmas’ on the inside

Contact me directly to place an order on 07792 553 273 or pete@petechapple.co.uk

Thursday 29th September-Saturday 1st October

Very Hot...Unbelievable heat wave during last week in September with temperatures in the high 20's! The Saturday was the highest temperature ever recorded for October!

During this part of my tour, I was meant to be in Cambridgshire but ended up drifting into Bedfordshire, and Hertfordshire.

Visited towns including Stoney, Kimbolton, St Neots (good golf course), Ashwell, Therfield amongst others.

Took a couple of amazing photographs...

Monday 19th-Wednesday 21st September

Market Harborough, Stamford.

Rutland/Leicestershire/Lincolnshire/Cambridgshire

Definitely getting a bit more autumnal now...trees loosing their leaves. Many more golden brown shades coming into thye foliage and a distinct chill in the air especially in the mornings.

Stayed in an outstanding B&B in Barnack. Extremely high quality service provided by Jilly and Michael and they took a real interest in my work which was very encouraging.

Rowan House

Station Road, Barnack, Stamford, Lincolnshire PE9 3DW 01780 740705 () ‎ ·

Moving House

Loads has happened recently and have been bad at keeping this updated. Real brief highlights..

Saturday 10th September - Moved house - therefore also moved Studio from Liverpool to Halifax. Very positive move..all went well.

Straight out on the promotional tour in new part of the country...Rutland...England's smallest county. Very picturesque area ... especially around Rutland water.

Village Halls. I've become slightly obsessed with them over recent weeks. Love the whole idea of them as a place where communities can get together and meet up for various events. Often found at the heart of most villages and appear as quite unusual buildings which stand out as quite distinct from other buildings that have grown up around them.

Christmas Card Competition

The winning designs for this years Christmas cards have now been chosen. Work will soon begin on producing the art work from these images and I'm hoping to have them all printed and ready for distribution from the start of November.

White Horse

This is a photo of that White Horse wheih has been etched on to the hill side. Near Compton Bassett in Wiltshire.

Ramsbury

Monday 29th August - Bank Holiday. Set off from Liverpool at 6am this morning. Made way to Compton Bassett in Wiltshire which strangely enough is where Robbie Williams lives. Then on to Yatesbury nearby. Then It was a 40 minute drive up to Ashbury and then back down to Aldbourne and finally Ramsbury where I took this photo of the oldest garage in the UK apparently.

15th-17th August, Lacock

I have just made the decision to do three day promotional tours instead of just two days to make the most of the summer months which are fast coming to an end! I started in Lacock and racked up a lot of miles travelling around Wiltshire, visiting villages such as Seend, Broughton Gifford, Urchfont, Melksham, Devizes, Wilton and Manningford Abbots. My first impression of Wiltshire was that I shouldn't bother travelling extensively in this county but I'm glad I did because it's proving to be very interesting...

Amazing view from Bowden Hill looking over Lacock

8th-9th August - Chippenham

For this visit, I took the whole family down to stay at my Dad's in Bristol for a few days. I was working around the Chippenham area in Wiltshire just up the M4. Villages included Malmesbury, Lea, Restrop, West Kington, Luckington and Wingfield.

5th-6th August Gloucestershire

In to August now...the year is flying by! Didmarton, Shipton Moyne, Horsley - again thiese places are in Gloucestershire or may be Wiltshire none of which I have previously visited...it's really interesting going to all these new places.

Shipton Moyne stood out for the reason that I have often wondered if I would ever meet someone who commissions a painting from me who is friends with another one of my customers that lives in a completely different part of the country. Well, this happened in this village where one of my customers knew another one of my customers who lived in Worcester!!!





I know I keep saying this but this actually is the most amazing view that I have come across - it's a special view point that is even mentioned on a road sign - It's near a place called Birdlip, Cirencester, looking West!

26th-27th July Stroud

Deep in the heart of Gloucestershire, places visited include Stonehouse, Slimbridge, Coaley, Woodchester, Robborough Common. All of these places were very small villages - some were extremely hilly which made it very difficult to get around. I had never been to any of these places before with the exception of Slimbridge which I visited during school trips on a number of occasions.

This was an interesting view photographed in the village of Black Bourton.

This was my final day of work in the Cotswolds - the next day I travelled to Harefield nr Stroud.

Stroud

Tuesday 26th and Wednesday 27th July were spent in Stroud and the surrounding area with an overnight stay at my Dad's house in Bristol. Spent a great deal of time in the Village of Woodchester - not much to say about this except that it's very hilly!! Some excellent views of the surrounding area.

Before the rain

Took this amazing scene in Cheltenham - bright sun shine with menacing clouds approaching!

Win a Watercolour

I know it’s about five months too early to start thinking about Christmas cards but please bear with me...

This year I am going to produce a series of four Christmas cards based on winter scenes and at least one of them could be provided by you.

If you have any photographs of winter scenes that you think would make a great Christmas card, send them to me and one of them may get chosen as one of the final designs. You will receive the original painting for providing one of the chosen images.

The judging panel will consist of Lucy (my wife) and myself. We will be looking for eye-catching winter images that would be suitable for a Christmas card.

You can submit as many photographs as you like by e mail or post before the end of August. The final images will be selected at the start of September and the cards printed by the end of October.

e mail your pictures to pete@petechapple.co.uk

or post them to:
69 Mansell Road,
Liverpool,
L6 6AY

(Your photographs will be returned to you)

1st July 2011

Woodmancote, near Cheltenham.
This photograph was taken from the top of the steepest hill I've ever cycled up! The view from the top was the best I've seen so far on my tour with the Malverns in the far distance.

29th June 2011

Stanton. This has to be one of the most picturesque villages I've visited so far. In the Cotswolds, this photograph was taken from a farm at the top of the village.

This was part of a two day tour in which I returned to Hereford to visit family. Had a nice chinese from the Wing Sing - my old local take-away, it was good to be back.

28th June 2011

Bredons Norton - Towards the edge of the Cotswolds - a beautiful location with the Malverns in the distance

23rd June 2011

Rous Lench and Kemerton nr Evesham.
This was a visit to near my home town of Worcester made in a single day. The bottom photograph was taken from a village called Rous Lench, North of Evesham. It is the view towards the Malvern Hills, which has to be one of my favourite locations.

The top photograph was taken in a village called Kemerton, West of Evesham. Someone was tending a fire and the sun shining through the smoke made this beautiful picture. Taken at the end of a day of sun shine and showers.

21st June 2011

View from The Old Red Lion, Great Brickhill, nr Milton Keynes. One of the best views on my promotional tour so far.

Winkfield to Ascot

Long day started in Bradford. The tour took me from Winkfield where I continued from Sunday and ended up completing half the tour of Ascot. There are many houses to visit in Ascot - should take most of the day tomorrow as well.

Finally ended up in one of my favourite B & B's, located in Marlow. Went on a very pleasant stroll along a lane, got half way to the pub then decided to turn around and head back.