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Happy New Year to you all. We’ve had a busy Christmas and New Year. Our oven broke down on Christmas Eve so that added to the excitement!! Graham managed to cook a delicious Christmas dinner by taking the turkey to a friend’s house – a Fawlty Towers episode springs to mind!

I’m just emerging into the real world and I’m continuing with my pastels. My work is now on a website of Lake District Prints: www.lakedistrictartprints.com and I’m hoping to put some of my pastels on there along with the watercolours already featured. The website has been started recently by Klein Imaging where I get my giclee prints printed.

I can’t scan my pastels and so took this photo on my iPhone. It’s not great, so I’m checking out different photographers who can take photos that I’ll then be able to reproduce as prints. This is called Moorland Storm.

It’s been an exciting time at Farfield Mill as we managed to raise over £346,000 in shares which meant the mill has been saved from closure. We’re not quite sure how we did it but we did! My studio is in the grounds of the mill and so, although our place wasn’t at risk, we would have missed the buzz of the mill. It would also have been tragic for all those artists who have studios there and the staff who would have lost their jobs. It is a lovely place to visit in the midst of glorious countryside in the Yorkshire Dales so it would have been a sad loss if it had had to close.

A new website has been set up recently called Dales Discoveries and my work will be going on it. I love painting the scenery around here and since  working in pastels, my work has become more dark and moody than when I work in watercolour. Here’s one of my latest on my easel in the studio.

The Green Door Art Trail is coming up and again I’ll be exhibiting in The Athanaeum in Leasgill near Milnthorpe in Cumbria.  I had some wooden screens made last year to hang my small paintings but the screens only just fitted into the car. I keep meaning to get a local joiner to saw 6inches off the tops and I’d better get a move on as the trail takes place on the weekend of the 29th and 30th September.

Unfortunately, that’s the day of the launch of the Share Offer at Farfield Mill. We’re hoping it will be a busy weekend at the mill with lots of people wanting to buy shares so as many trustees, staff, resident artists etc need to be on hand as possible. I wont be able to be there but I will be back in time for the party for the ‘Great and Good’ (and wealthy!) of Sedbergh and district in the evening! We’ve got to raise £365,000 to keep the mill going. We’ve been promised £100,000 of matched funding so only need another £265,000!!

Here’s the Green Door  Art Trail flyer.

Great news from Farfield Mill because at a recent EGM, we won the vote by 500 to 1 to become a CBS. This means we’ll become a co-operative and people will be able to buy shares. This is the only way the mill will survive as it needs serious money investing in it to bring it up to date, repair the roof etc.

It’s been an emotional time, not without problems but we (the trustees) the resident artists, staff etc are ecstatic and now must get on with selling shares!

Meantime I’ve been working in my studio and getting ready for an exhibition at the Parsonage in Didsbury. A friend came to stay recently and we both enjoyed a week of drawing. Me in pastel and her in pencil.

Here’s one I was working on.

It’s been glorious weather during the whole of May and into June. I think we’ve had less rain in the North West than in the South of England for  a change! I went on a coach trip with a local gardening club to two gardens and nurseries in York and Halifax recently. The gardens were gorgeous but it was very cold and when we arrived back in Manchester the sun was still shining!! I bought several plants of course. I can always find a space!

We held a Plant Sale at Farfield Mill on the weekend of June 9th in aid of the Friends of Farfield Mill. I had sowed several trays of lettuce seedlings but I don’t think the hot weather had suited them as they struggled to grow and some of them are still looking rather weedy!  We did very well at the sale and raised some much needed funds for the mill and I managed to sell some of the more healthy looking lettuce seedlings too!

Whitworth Park, where The Whitworth Gallery is situated, has also been looking lovely, especially in the Spring when the blossom is on the trees. I painted it and have had the painting printed as a postcard so they can also raise some money! Here it is. You can just see the windows of the gallery peeping through the trees on the left!

I exhibited my work at Green Walk again this year. An Arts and Crafts Festival has been taking place in this cul-de-sac in a suburb of Manchester for 12 years. It is always on the first May Bank Holiday weekend and this is the first year in all that time that the weather has been so hot!! This is  cul-de-sac is a little oasis in this part of Manchester. It has a beautiful green in the middle of it where people picnicked, played games, musicians played etc. I was exhibiting in one of the houses and as well as showing my paintings, I met loads of people who I hadn’t seen for years. It was a great weekend, though it was just a shame that I spent all the glorious weather indoors!

Sadly our wonderful, tall cactus has died. It was tucked in a corner and I think we neglected it. I did this painting in my sketch book nearly 20 years ago and it grew to 4ft. There’s been another demise in the conservatory and that is our Weeping Fig. It had been a gift from students and must have been even older. So, we have more space now in the conservatory for the lemon trees which are getting very large. It’s nearly time for them to go in the garden but they are very heavy as they’re in large pots. The student lads next door come in useful as they help to carry them out!!

The seedlings are finally germinating (hopefully the tomatoes wont be as leggy as these!) after a very slow season and other plants in the garden are pushing through and coming to life. The Magnolia tree and Camelias are looking glorious.

I’ve been to a couple of workshops on acrylic painting recently. I have lots of tubes of paint but never get around to using it mainly because, unlike watercolour,  it dries so quickly. I experimented with some different ways of using it and so plan to dust off my tubes and have a go at home!

It’s been pretty wet this month so I haven’t gone for many walks. There has been some snow so the hills have looked beautiful, especially when the sun was shining. The hedgerows are pretty bare except for holly and ivy. There are still some berries on the holly that the birds haven’t eaten but there are plenty of flowers on the ivy for birds and insects to eat.  I took some home and painted it. In watercolour, of course!

December has been so busy that I’ve just realised that I haven’t written anything all month.

It’s been hectic at the mill organising Christmas exhibitions. It was free entry over the weekend of my birthday with lots of events and activities for children. We called it Festive Farfield and it was great fun. We had all gathered a few days before to decorate the mill and it was good to see staff, resident artists, trustees etc all mucking in and getting into the festive spirit. We have had a challenging year and aren’t out of the woods yet but our Just Giving site is bringing in some well needed revenue before we become a Co-op in the New Year.

We went to London for a few days and caught up with several old friends for lunch. We saw ‘Follies’ at The National which was brilliant and very emotional, also ‘The Play that Went Wrong’ which was very funny. My favourite exhibition was of Degas Drawings. Although I’d seen most of them many times before, there was something about the way the exhibition was curated that made it special and inspired me to get out my pastels again!

We’re having a great Christmas with family and friends in Manchester. I feel like I’m running a B&B at the moment with different people staying each night, then we’re back to Sedbergh for the New Year.

I thought the following photos of round the corner in Withington and outside my studio door at Farfield sum up our dual life. No prizes for guessing which is which!!

I hope you have all been having a very Happy Christmas and wish you a very Happy New Year.

My exhibition has come down now. The final weekend was busy because the mill was taking part in Open Heritage Weekend. It was also Meet the makers so I was there along with the other artists who are currently exhibiting. A patchwork artist who is coming to exhibit at Farfield Mill in the Spring came along with a huge bunch of gladioli for me so that was a treat to end my exhibition.

I then spent the next couple of days putting up the next exhibitions. One is by Re-View Textiles, a Wirral based textile collective and the other is by Access Art, a participatory project run by AccessArt  www.accessart.org.uk/accessartvillage which is a UK education charity which supports and inspires teaching and learning in the visual arts. The project aimed to inspire individuals of all ages and abilities to contribute a sewn drawing of their home towards a larger, collaborative artwork.

The resulting installation of over 700 3D models shows work by children next to that of accomplished artists and older generations. We are hoping to reach a wide audience to come and see this fantastic exhibition at Farfield Mill.

I had never heard of this project before Green Door, the art group I belong to, announced it would be holding an exhibition there in Sept. Located in a remote woodland in the heart of the Langdale valley in Cumbria, Merz Barn still stands as Kurt Schwitters left it unfinished in 1948. Schwitters was a German artist who could be considered to be the first installation artist. He created several of these barns but all but this one were destroyed. After his arrival in England during the war and especially after hearing of the destruction of the Hanover Merzbau,  Schwitters was desperate to resume what he considered to be his lifetime’s work, and create a final, permanent Merzbau. This he started just outside Elterwater in 1947 but it was never completed. A Trust is now trying to restore this derelict barn to what it would have been.

Graham and I visited there recently.  It is a magical place and we were full of admiration for the couple who stay there and caretake the area. I painted in the sunshine and look forward to the exhibition to see how others responded to this special place.

My exhibition is up. Here’s the flier. I’ve called it North and South as I wanted to include some of my paintings from Southern France and Spain. However, I’ve also included some of my New York paintings and others from Tokyo, so maybe it should have been called North and South, East and West!

In the other gallery at Farfield Mill is an exhibition of work in wood by three woodworkers. It’s called ‘Into the Woods’ and you enter through some branches of trees. They give off a lovely aroma which adds to the atmosphere.

The mill is very busy at the moment with lots of visitors to the area. There is a mouse trail for the children to follow and some looms where you can have a go. All the studios are full now with weavers, jewellers, painters, knitters etc. So, it’s a good place to visit, especially when it’s raining!!

It’s been a busy time at Farfield Mill recently. We have been organising a Stash Sale which means we have invited artists and craftspeople to hire a table to sell any beads, wool, fabric, weaving equipment etc that they no longer want. It takes place this Sunday July 16th and it’s also been a good opportunity to clear out the cupboards at the mill. Three of us spent all Friday sorting out one of the cupboards. Most of it will go into the sale, some was given to two of our new resident artists who upcycle garments and recycle fabric and some of it went in the skip!

As well as this, I am getting ready for my exhibition at the mill which opens on Aug. 3rd. A friend of mine is coming up from Manchester to help me hang it.  It’s going to be quite a rush as we are going to a wedding in Derby on the Sunday before but most of my paintings are now being framed so I think I’ll be ready. Here’s one of them. It is of a quiet place by the river near my studio

Graham and I are both now Directors at Farfield Mill so it’s a hectic time at the moment with endless emails and meetings every other day. Still, I think we’re making progress.
I took part in an Art Trail at the weekend. It was run by the Green Door Art Group and there were exhibitions in venues across the Kendal area. I was exhibiting in Leasgill near Milnthorpe with six other artists. It was glorious weather all over the weekend so we were worried that this would keep the visitors away but plenty came and it was a successful show. Here’s my stand. Please admire the screens, there are three of them but you can only see two! I had to get them made specially for this exhibition. They worked well but weigh a ton so weren’t easy to transport!!

We went to London at the weekend to catch up with exhibitions, theatre and friends. Unfortunately, we were going on Thurs. the day of Storm Doris and ended up spending it at Manchester Piccadilly station as there were no trains running! We had booked to see The Lion King that evening. I have been wanting it to see for years but we finally had to give up waiting to see if there would be a train when we knew we wouldn’t get there in time even if one did run. So, we went home and set off again the following morning. After that we had a great time. We saw Paul Nash and Hockney at Tate Britain and America after the Fall and the Russian Revolution exhibition at the RA. We went to the National Theatre to see a strange play and met several friends.
The weather wasn’t great but it didn’t matter. We’ve had all weathers this February. It’s been sunny, mild, wet and we even had some snow this morning but we have managed to do some work on the allotment and I went to Dunham Massey recently to see the Winter Garden as the bulbs are now coming up. It inspired me to get out painting again.

It’s been a while since I’ve posted anything because my website has been playing up. I’m not sure where to start as it’s been a busy month! We had a great Christmas and New Year and I’m now a Trustee on the board of Farfield Mill! This is rather daunting as the mill is in a bad way financially. There is a new group of people on the board who are very enthusiastic so we have lots of plans to save it. Our cottage is not affected. It is the main mill building next door to us that is an Arts and Heritage Centre which is in trouble. It would be very sad if it closed down so we’re working hard to make sure it doesn’t.

I still have contacts with Bollington. I took part in an exhibition in November and through that I have cards and prints for sale at the Bridgend Centre. I visited recently and was intending painting the hills but it was so foggy that I couldn’t see them! I parked in a lay-by and did a quick sketch of winter trees.

I have recently submitted a painting for an auction run by New Light whose aim is to make Northern visual arts available to everyone through exhibitions, lending art to hospices, schools etc and through an education programme which includes talks, workshops and school projects. The aim of the auction is to raise money to be able to continue with this aim. Its called a 100 for 100 and the paintings submitted had to be small and unframed. I decided to put in one of my paintings of the view out of the window of the cottage of our friends, Eve and Duncan. It is near near Kendal and I’d painted there many times. Eve gave Duncan one of my paintings of the view for his 60th birthday. Now they’re about to move, so it will be a good memory.

This is the one I put in for the on-line auction which starts this Friday.

It’s Sheepfest this weekend and Graham and I are just finishing off our sheep. This year the subject is Book titles as Sedbergh is a book town. Graham and I wanted to continue our themes from last year when I made David Hockney and Graham made Jeremy Corbyn.

I have made Van Gogh so my book is a ‘How to’ book, in this case ‘How to paint sunflowers!’ Graham has made Donald Trump!! He couldn’t resist it. I believe he has written a book about how to succeed in business!! As usual we took advantage of friends who were visiting to help us. David, from Phoenix did a wonderful job building up Donald with masking tape and bubblewrap and has gone home inspired to make some sheep to sit on his back step in the desert!! Hazel, is an expert needle woman and sewed some of the fiddly bits for Vincent.
And I am using a painting our niece Megan painted of sunflowers, for the cover of the book Vincent will be holding. Here it is.

I haven’t written anything for a while as my website has been playing up!
We’ve been having a busy Summer with lots of visitors. The swifts have gone which is sad. I’ve been enjoying watching them which is amazing considering I didn’t know what they looked like before moving here! Their numbers have been going down over recent years because old barns are being converted and the little holes, where they used to nest, are being filled in. A group of swift enthusiasts in Sedbergh are checking their nesting sites and putting up nesting boxes in the eaves of houses. I was given the job of checking where they are nesting at Farfield Mill, where there are several old barns. They go into their nests at dusk so, recently, I could be seen standing in the field at 10pm getting bitten by midges and staring up at the tops of the old barns!! They are very quick. If you blink you can miss them.

The hedgerows have been looking beautiful. I just had to paint some of the flowers.

My two exhibitions in Bollington and Brigsteer have finished now and so I’ve been able to get back to painting. A friend from art college days has been to stay. She lives in London and it was her first trip out of the city for a year. She really enjoyed having a complete change of scene and as the weather was so good we spent a couple of days painting outside.

One day while in Sedbergh we spotted a sign for an Open Garden. It was just through a gate off the car park in Sedbergh, and it was glorious. There were 2 acres of garden including a courtyard full of tulips and anemones and a bluebell wood. I couldn’t believe it was there just tucked behind the car park. The lady owner used to be a textile designer, like Gill and me and invited us to stay and paint. It was a lovely find.

It’s been a blustery Easter but not as bad as down South, by the sound of it! We’ve been on some walks and a friend with her dog came to stay. Most of the shops in Sedbergh were open all over the weekend. They wanted to take advantage of all the walkers who were out and about. As one of them said to me; “if we want to be a destination town, we have to be open!”
I’ve been busy preparing for my next exhibition which opens in Bollington on April 10th. Paintings are being framed but there’s still lots to do.

It was lovely to be able to walk in the sunshine at the weekend and there were a few lambs in the fields. There aren’t any sheep in the fields near us at the moment so I hope they come back when their lambs are born. Last year we enjoyed walking up the lane to watch them skipping around at the end of the day.

There were glorious drifts of snowdrops. They have been wonderful this year and have lasted for weeks. I remember they were looking beautiful in late January when I visited Harlow Carr with my sister and it’s now mid March. Maybe they are different varieties or else they liked the wet winter!

This is a painting of snowdrops in the Winter Garden at Harlow Carr.

We had a good New Year’s Eve and the rain stopped for long enough over the last couple of days for us to be able to get out for some walks. I am now preparing for an exhibition at the RHS garden, Harlow Carr. I’m also helping at Farfield Mill as it closes for two weeks in January  for cleaning and refurbishment. Today, I’ve been painting the display stands. There is a plan to extend the cafe so they can be open on occasional evenings and also rent it out for groups. It looks like the mill is being revitalised so that’s good news.

It’s all change in Sedbergh as well, as two of the three pubs are closed at the moment. We’re not sure about The Bull but the landlady of our favourite pub has just retired. We have heard that a new owner will be taking over soon but no-one seems to know anything about them. We just hope they don’t change it too much and so lose the atmosphere and that they keep the coal fire!

The days are rather grey at the moment. It would be good to have some bright, crisp winter days but the landscape here is still great to paint.

Great excitement because Farfield Mill has been nominated for an award in the Cumbria Life magazine awards. It was voted by the public and then chosen by a panel of judges to be in the top five of the small galleries category. It is up against stiff competition as Blackwell House is also in the running. We don’t imagine we’ll win but it’s great publicity.

Autumn has been glorious this year and I’ve been painting outside more than I managed in the summer. I’m still working in pen and ink but am combining it with watercolour and pastel. I haven’t used pastel much before, despite Graham having bought me several sets of colours. I am really enjoying the freedom it gives me, especially when combining it with watercolour. Here is a painting I am working on at the moment. The original is larger than this but I can only scan A4!

It’s been a busy week in Sedbergh as it was Sheepfest for the second year running and it lasted for 10 days this time. Graham and I made a sheep each and they stood outside our front door. Graham’s was Jeremy Corbyn – very timely and a great talking point – and mine was David Hockney. Lots of people were following the sheep trail so we had a steady stream of visitors to our door. Graham stoically sat there for most of the week and directed them to my studio (I need some signs!) I enjoyed meeting more of the locals, including several farmers who were pointing out the fields in my paintings which were theirs!

On the opening Saturday a flock of real sheep was herded down the main street. There was much hilarity as someone opened the door of the library and they all dashed in! Apparently, if they see their reflections in the windows they try to follow them!

Here are the sheep, real and not so real

We had a lovely week recently as two friends, Jodi and Victor came to stay with our  friend Hazel.  Jodi, Hazel and I were at art college together but Jodi now lives in Kauai, a Hawaiian island, with her husband Victor. The weather was fine and it was great to be able to have a week doing touristy things. Victor is American and likes anything old and he really enjoyed looking around Farfield Mill. We are so used to looking round the mill now that it was good to see it through fresh eyes.

Naturally I had to take them to see my exhibition at The Brewhouse! It has been extended till mid September and after then, there will be a group exhibition of Green Door artists as they are celebrating their 20th anniversary. Here is a photo of a corner of my exhibition. The Manager of the wine bar told me it has been very popular so that’s good!

Green Door, the Art Group based in Kendal that I belong to, are organising an exhibition in Kendal Museum and we have all been asked to submit 2 paintings. The theme is Red/Read and we were told to think around the subject and not be too obvious! I decided to submit one of my New York Times Square paintings and the other one is a painting I did several years ago of a Greek island called Symi. I thought that, as Greece is in the red, this would fit the theme!

It has reminded me how lovely it is there and I think perhaps we should go back soon. I  know they could do with our money. The last time we were there, Greece was just entering the Euro. I remember one cafe owner saying what a mistake it was. I bet he’s not happy now.

This was the view from our apartment.

I have an exhibition coming up soon at The Brewhouse in Kendal. We met our friends, Eve and Duncan there recently so I could look at the space and think about what paintings to show. I want to show a range of paintings and not just of the local area so I think I’ll include some of New York and Manchester too. It is a Wine Bar and so they will fit in. Whilst in Kendal we also had brunch at The Castle Dairy restaurant. It was delicious.

I think I will include this painting in the exhibition. I painted it looking down from the road between Sedbergh and Kendal and you can just pick out Sedbergh nestling in the distance.

I visited this gallery  last week. I haven’t been for ages but I was interested in seeing an exhibition of an artist who was at Art College with some friends of mine.  I also wanted to support the Gallery as they have been through hard times recently with cuts and threats of closure. They now have a lively team who are working hard to keep it open as an Art Gallery and they are organising some great exhibitions. I may look into having an exhibition there myself one day.

Whilst in Stockport I visited Turners, the art shop. I saw some watercolours by a company called Pip Seymour. I hadn’t heard of them before but they looked very interesting with a lovely colour range. I think I’ll treat myself to some next time I visit.

I’ll be going to Stockport again soon because Rhode Island Coffee still continues to sell my paintings of New York and there are some spaces on the walls which I need to fill. This is one of the paintings I’ll be hanging.