Grand Re-opening

The Calder Gallery in Hebden Bridge is reopening today after a flood in January resulted in three months of repair work. There will be big celebrations for Phil and Sue today - doubly so because it is also the gallery's fifth anniversary. These are the paintings that I have on show there. Above is 'High Water, Widdop' (95x70cm wood panel).

These four smaller pieces (each 26cm square) are on paper and under glass in light oak frames. Above are 'Early Morning Popples Lane, Old Town' and 'Late Summer, Haworth Old Road.' Below are two pieces inspired by a trip last year to The Llyn Peninsula - 'Evening Sunlight, Neffyn Beach Harbour' and 'Last Light, Porth Neigwl'So if you are in the area pop along and join in the celebrations. Best Wishes to Phil and Sue!

Easter Hols

Isn't it wonderful what some spring-like weather and a change of scene can do for the soul? During the Easter hols we headed North, first to the South end of the Lake District and then to Cumbria and Northumberland. This place was our first stop - Leighton Moss Bird reserve on The Solway Firth. It's flat land and reed beds - such a contrast from the Penine Hills (lovely as they are, we all need change) and yet so close. It was just beautiful and so were the Avocets , Egrets and Marsh Harriers - just a few of the local inhabitants. The girls seemed to really enjoy it too and it was an especially relaxed time once we realised that we could borrow some extra pairs of RSPB binoculars so that Charlie and I could actually have use of our own.

Next Stop was the Youth Hostel at Arnside where we met up with some friends, and finished with a lovely and varied walk up Arnside Knot where this photo (with the Hostel in the middle ground) was taken from.

We then headed up to Cumbria for a really enjoyable stay with Charlies parents who live near to Hadrian's wall. On this visit we travelled to Wallington Hall - a fascinating Georgian Mansion full of wonderful decorative art and natural history collections. My favorite aspect was a courtyard room lined with Pre-raphaelite-era panels depicting the history of Northumberland. The girls on the other hand favoured a room full of dolls houses including this tiny little mouse-house (picture below taken through a mouse hole at ground level - I couldn't actually line my eye up with it without breaking my neck so taking a picture was the only solution - hope I didn't break any rules...)

New Work

Ok, managed to remember how to make a new blog post, first hurdle over. Now to decide what to put in it after so long away and so many creative tangents to cover. A good place to start seems to be with new paintings delivered today to Artzu Gallery in Manchester. These are hopefully the first of many to come over the next few months now that Winter is finally over. Yes folks I am partly blaming my lull in productivity on the cold snap. No really, the studio has been sO cold! My fingers were rendered disfunctional. I have tried to work at home but personally I get quite easily distracted. Anyway its over and i'm painting and buzzing with ideas again. I have some new work in The Calder Gallery for their reopening on April 24th/25th (See seperate post to come) and also some pieces at Ntama in Todmorden. But first off are these three new Manchester paintings at Artzu.

The River Irwell From Victoria Bridge

Castlefield and The Hilton.

Sunset, Salford Quays