Diamond Days in the North York Moors

I’ve been thinking about the importance of landscape recently, how surroundings affect mood, motivation and even character.So, while my latest creations rest, half finished , on the table next to me I thought I’d share a personal love story about the North York Moors. It may seem strange to those of you who know me as someone who lives in the middle of nowhere, surrounded by sheep and solitude, but I actually spent the first 14 years of my life in London. Visits to Grandparents in “The North Riding”  were idyllic and now seem tinted with that golden, over exposed hue of 1970′s photographs- Flying box kits on the moor, building dams in the River Esk, gritty picnics on Sandsend beach and jumping out of the car to drink icy water from a moorland spring and to breath in the sharp brackeny air at Goathland after a long , cramped, car journey from the South.

So the landscape kind of seeps into your bones and now, much as I love my trips to the city ,and proudly claim to be a Londoner, North Yorkshire has become a place of deep roots and family history, in the same way as  a tree grows angled by the prevailing wind I am now more more shaped by the North than the South!

This year is the 60th anniversary of the North York Moors National Park and I’m getting quite excited by a new exhibition this Summer that will include works by 5 artists including Joe Cornish, William Tillyer and Len Tabner whose work is all connected by a love of the North York Moors. Obviously ,for me, the work of William Tillyer has almost become my default way of seeing the moors around me, the atmospheric skies in particular, and is one reason why I never attempt to paint landscape!

The exhibition will include a re-issue of “The Furnished Landscape” , a  series of photographs which now document a lost way of life. Who can remember milk stands at the end of each farm lane? Some things don’t change though, the honey scented air when the heather is purple in August, the lichen covered drystone walls,wild garlic and bluebells in the woods in spring, curlews calling mournfully while the lapwings threaten to dive bomb anyone who comes too close to their nest.

Have I tempted you to visit this beautiful part of England? If you came between August 8th and September 16th you could also visit the Dutch House, where I will be having a little exhibition! And better still, my lovely friend Sam runs a fabulous website which gives you just about all the information you might need to plan your escape to the North in your very own North Yorkshire cottage!

So, it’s time to return to the sewing and the sketchbook after losing myself in a little journey around Gods Own Country. After singing its praises so much I think I’d better get my boots “Dubbined” and go for a bit of fresh air tomorrow!

Big Skies and Rounded Hills

Brooch with Lavender filling, hand embroidery and hand painted bird.

I have returned to the wonderful North after a lovely week in the West Country. It was a relief to escape from the massive stress and anger caused by BT failing to mend my phone (and hence internet access) for almost two weeks. It couldn’t have happened at a worse time as I struggled to drum up support for the Meet the Artists/Shelterbox fundraiser. Anyway, after driving for 6 hours in sticky heat yesterday it was semi- orgasmic bliss to run around my damp Yorkshire garden in bare feet, gorging on wild strawberries and breathing in the glorious scent of freesias, lavender and sweet peas!

Caen Hill Locks, Divizes

It feels as though we spent a week in a kind of heat haze. Wiltshire was all big skies, Paul Nash rounded hills, yellow ocre and golden brown, with the sweet dusty smell of straw and ripe corn fields. Craving cool water, we visited Caen Hill Locks where blue dragonflies buzzed about and I mistook a man’s comment that he had “rode all the way from Bath” to mean he had come in a rowing boat…until the kids pointed out he was on a bike.

Indian Mime/Acrobats in the Children’s Field at WOMAD

So, WOMAD festival and Lacock Abbey were  the cultural highlights of our trip;  also,seeing a Red Kite near Avebury was very exciting and reminds me that you are probably only reading this to find out how the owl drawing competition went….!

The Cloisters at Lacock Abbey

The day at Golden Brown Coffee seems ages ago now and I would have written sooner if BT weren’t so hopeless…

Owl drawing in progress.

In the end we received some fantastic support from companies such as Millican and Greene King. People turned up ( !) and seemed to enjoy drawing the owl and having a go at shrink plastic necklace making. There was even a photographer from the local paper prepared to take our mug shots ( I haven’t seen the evidence yet though). I’m afraid I gave my dad a hard task ,picking the winner of the competition, and yes, maybe there should have been a kids and an adults class, but with one voucher donated by a local art shop I couldn’t split the prize…

Mr William Tillyer faces a difficult decision with a smile!

The winner was eventually decided (top left)and the most important bit being that we raised £130 for Shelterbox  . (We saw Shelterbox at WOMAD so it was good to see what actually goes into a box and have a look in the specially designed tents).Thank you to everyone who came, sold or bought raffle tickets or donated prizes.

Now I’m off to breathe in some more garden smells and get the bread out of the oven. x

ps: I’d love it if you would vote for my blog in the Dorset Cereals competition, (there is a button on the right of this page),thank you so much. xxx

“…if pretty little Blue Birds fly…”

Just  a very quick one today. I’m going to be away, hopefully, getting some fresh air and exercise in the Lake District for a few days so I thought I’d extend the GIVEAWAY deadline until Wednesday to give you all more time to leave a comment ( There has been more snow ,a 19th birthday and several small upheavals to contend with so I haven’t given it much thought either).So far, despite record numbers of visitors there have been very few entries. Hmmm, why is this? I do like the giveaway idea as a way of both thanking readers and hopefully spreading the word about my work, however it doesn’t really seem to be as effective for me as it has been for other blogs…

This little Blue Bird has just been listed in my Etsy shop and I finally got confirmation that my sketchbook has arrived and been catalogued at the Brooklyn Art Library and is somewhere on these shelves!

Readers in London may like to know that an exhibition of my Daddy’s amazing watercolours,inspired by balcony views in the South of France, Portugal and Spain, is on until March 26th at the Bernard Jacobson Gallery.

Have a Happy Weekend, and enjoy half term x

Coalescence

Goodness,October! Yesterday there was brief respite from the wind and rain; a perfect Autumn day which I spent stacking logs, thank goodness they weren’t delivered today! The water here is now so horrible , due to the rain, that I’m thinking its probably safer to do what they used to do in the “old days” and drink only beer or maybe whiskey…

So, here are some details of designs which I’d done for New Leaf. As I said, I’d forgotten the amount of detail I’d put into some of these designs and yet again I’m wondering what on earth to do with nearly 200 garment shapes…answers on the back of a postcard please! Actually, maybe I should go looking for a new agent and give the freelance thing another go ???

Well, I really must get some more work done now. I’ve been busy with those t-shirts and I’d promised myself not to start any new things or buy any new materials before I’d got them all done. But I really want to…digital print some fabric, laser cut some brooches, make some baby shoes, write a book, do some drawing, visit some galleries, travel to Italy…guess I’m going to have to start getting up early.

These beautiful flowers are the last survivors from my garden and were a birthday bouquet for my parents. I love the moody colours and the way they go so well with the Tillyer watercolour on the wall behind.

Just time to mention the lovely giveaway over on Katy Howieson’s blog. I’m spreading the word but I reckon its about time I won something, its about time my luck changed. Isn’t it?

Reading: …any suggestions? I’ve nearly finished the book I’ve been reading. Listening to : Rain rain rain rain rain

Waiting For The Sun

I’ve been told that the swallows have returned to the North but so far there’s no sign of them at Witchmountain. I spent all day outside on Friday, wriggling my toes in the earth while taking a break from digging and listening to the solar powered radio…maybe the swallows didn’t like the music?! Anyway, it was good, the sun felt good and I thought…”The sun is gonna keep on shining,Brighter days on the horizon,My love for you will always keep on rising, Everything is gonna be alright…” (well almost which is pretty good for me!).

****************************************************GIVEAWAY TIME!!****************************************************************

I haven’t made anything new but as you can see I still have  these brooches which I ought to have taken to Ripon …but here they are on the lovely vintage piece of cross-stitch I found in a charity shop.I may put them on Etsy instead…or how about I give one away for my birthday on Friday? ( Like Hobbits do I think?) Yes, I will! leave a comment before April 26th and I will pick one at random to win a bear brooch.

Anyway, I’ve been a very lucky girl this week and had an early present when my Daddy turned up with a copy of “William Tillyer ,The Watercolours” all beautiful and with that delicious new book smell! Not so lucky that the chickens have been “helping” in the garden by digging up newly planted things and scattering neatly raked piles of  weeds; hmmm, and all I get by way of an apology is an egg about the same size as a Cadbury’s Mini Egg ( and I mean One egg).

Heavy Skies

Last week I got caught in the most amazing storm as I drove home across the moor, the light was fantastic…rainbows and sheets of hail in a sky that looked like an angry bruise.As usual I curse my poor photographic skills; it would have been impossible to catch the beautiful, translucent mountains of clouds with my phone’s camera and I really shouldn’t have been looking at them while I was driving anyway.

Talking of photography and phones though, I have been getting very jealous of the pictures Lyndsay McBean has been taking with her iPhone. Apparently its an application called “Hipstamatic” that makes everything look a bit lovely and vintage. Here is her picture of Saltburn Pier (© Lyndsay McBean 2010)

Meanwhile, although things are slowly springing to life outside ,the inspiration and self confidence is still at an all time low, so yet again, apologies for having no new work to show you.Instead I will point you in the direction of Cork Street for part 3 of “Tillyer Season”… Watercolours. I’m looking forward to seeing this exhibition on Thursday at the Private View, and will be adding a copy of the beautiful book by John Yau to my birthday wish list !

(Listening to: “Lost and Found” Steve Mason. Reading: Last week’s paper)

“Flashes from the Archives of Oblivion”

Wow, three days of sunshine,washing on the line and Lapwings getting territorial in the field. I’m waiting for the Curlews return as the year creaks slowly back into life.

I dug out a very old sketch book, looking for things to photograph, and found these drawings from 2005.Snowdrops and lost love, first signs of Spring.It feels as thought the sun hasn’t shone for a year but maybe, just maybe there’ll be a break in the clouds soon.

Anyway, the point of today’s post is to let you know about an exhibition of William Tillyer’s prints/reproductions of watercolours, which is opening tomorrow in Harrogate at the Godfrey&Watt Gallery .A rare event in the North…

23/10/05

“Dead Letter Office”

What a strange day; a cloud of midge’s is dancing about above the mud patch that was the lawn,the chickens have gone mad laying eggs and yet this morning it snowed again and the schoolbus failed to make it.

The ice and snow meant I was a bit late getting down to Middlesbrough,where I was taking a few things( including these notebooks) to put in the We Are Open , pop-up shop.

It’s in a fantastic position, right in the middle of the pedestrian area, opposite “House of Frasier ” and is meant to be a cozy meeting place as well as a gallery and shop. I’ll post more information next time or you can join the Facebook group.

I wish I’d taken pictures before packaging these little books, but I was in a bit of a rush to get them finished so I could take them today.Anyway this is not going to be a long waffle as I have to be at work early tonight so I need a quiet moment with some coffee before I head out. Don’t forget to visit “We Are Open” and also the “DesignersMarketplace” pop-up shop and if you are in London, William Tillyer has the opening of his “Paintings” show tonight at the Bernard Jacobson Gallery.

Cruiseomatic and the Power of Orange

This week I feel as though I have been catching up on long neglected “personal admin “as a friend of mine describes it,(actually I think he was referring to making sure he’d drunk enough water and had paracetamol by the bed after a night in the pub…).In my case I mean I’ve been sitting for hours putting bank statements in order, paying bills, answering letters and generally clearing out the ” drawers of shame” where a years worth of unopened phone bills lurked! its a good feeling when it’s done.

Getting organised also involved finally getting over to Ripon to meet Moira McTeague of the March Hare Gallery .Moira does lovely etchings of hares and flowers on a press in the gallery,which also has a cafe upstairs. There was some really nice work on show so I was pleased when she took two of my framed pieces and some bear brooches…after the usual thorny subject of pricing ( I really don’t feel as though we were given much help on this subject at college and most “arty” types hate discussing money I think…I’d be interested to hear any thoughts on that subject…)
Next week sees the opening of Tillyer Season at the Bernard Jacobson Gallery, Cork Street, London. I’m hoping to get down to see the prints (on until the 27th) because they often remind me of places and things from my childhood.”Cruiseomatic”(1972) is an etching of the mustard yellow Mustang we had ; 8Track cassettes of Cat Stevens, Vivaldi and America, giant metal hub caps with the galloping horse and an electric roof.Ah, those were the days…are we there yet?!

Below is a new etching, “Clouds 2010″ …I told you ORANGE was the colour of the moment!Anyway, visit if you can.

My ” personal addmin” continues now with a hot bath and an early night reading.

Shadows and Fog

“Orange” Kim Tillyer 2010

Today has been unbelievably gloomy and disgusting;horizontal sleet,fog and a gloopy mess like frozen wallpaper paste covering the ground. Walking from the car earlier, with a bag of logs, was quite a mission but luckily I kept my feet- unlike the cat who fell down a flooded drain!(she’s Ok, don’t panic.)

Anyway since the whole scene reminds me of that film “Angela’s Ashes” I thought I would show you these pictures ,as an antidote to the grey! Emily Turner also worked at the Golden Lion but she’s in India at the moment and I loved the colours in these market scenes…particularly the orange and bright cobalt blue.Alot of people seem to be using orange at the moment, we must all be needing colour and light in our lives.

You can see more pictures of Emily’s trip on this blog.Meanwhile, back in the frozen North, I’m getting excited about the forthcoming Tillyer Season at the Bernard Jacobson Gallery in London. This e-mail arrived yesterday, along with an invite to the private view…time to start saving up for a train ticket, or four!

Right, time to do some drawing of my own.

(Reading:”East of the Sun and West of the Moon” Old Tales From the North, Illustrated by Kay Nielson and “Fair Play” Tove Jansson. Listening to : “Coldcut” “Walk a Mile in my Shoes”)