Newsletter: November 22
In all honesty my mind has not entirely been on work this month….I took a decision very early on, that I wouldn’t post personal stuff especially about my family, but this month our lovely son got married to his wonderful partner. Anyway, you can imagine that life has been all about final preparations, and finding something to wear after a bit of a disaster on that front! Anyway all went brilliantly last weekend and an incredibly happy time was had by all…YAY!!!
Art-wise then things have been pretty slow, but I do have some lovely art related news.
The first relates to teaching; one of very few downsides of moving up here to lovely Nidderdale, is that I now have a fantastic but distinctly bijou studio; perfect for me on my own, but no good at all for teaching. I was missing teaching and slightly itchy to set something up, so I am super excited to say that I will be running a one day course at the wonderful Lund Gallery and Studios, which is up here in North Yorkshire, just outside the lovely market town of Easingwold.
The Lund is on a small farm, and has wonderful outside space to explore. Inside there is a beautiful gallery and purpose built studio space, perfect for a day making art and experimenting!! You can see some of the details below and check out the full blurb on the Jo York at the Lund link, but the idea of the day is about making a personal and intuitive response to the winter landscape around the Lund, without pressure or preconceptions. We will be working mostly in acrylics with a few touches of mixed media, and experimenting with colour mixes and blends and opaque and translucent layers.
You can find out more about my course and Lund Studios by following this link: Jo York at the Lund
*The date for your diaries is the 25th March 2023 and please don’t delay as numbers are strictly limited-max number is 11.
The course fee includes materials, lunch and refreshments, so all you would need to do is bring yourself and a few favourite bits and pieces; like a brush you love, or a favourite pencil etc…there will be plenty of heavy gesso-ed paper, but you can also bring a sketchbook and a phone camera would be really useful.
Talking about my studio space, I am really feeling it’s getting there now.
You move in, put stuff down, unpack and set up, but for me at least it takes a while for things to really work. It is a small space; long and narrow so I need to be organised and canny about how I use it…I’m sure it will continue to evolve, but progress is definitely being made!
The photo shows one end of the studio…the set up is now working pretty well down this end. I have a cheap Ikea glass table which I use when I need to work on my computer, and a set of metal drawers on wheels, which house palette knives etc, and can tuck out of the way under the table when I don’t need them. The big table on the right is my flat painting/ working area, and at the back is a large plan chest with paint pots and tubes in small plastic crates. I group them by colour so they are easy to find. I keep spares and larger containers on the wooden shelves.
In other news, I also have a little low key studio sale on my website at the moment. I tend to have a bit of a clear out every now and then, to make room for new stuff, and currently have a small but lovely selection of original pieces. They are framed or mounted small paintings, which have been part of my process as starting points for larger paintings.…they make great gifts and are also a fantastic way of starting a collection as they are very affordable.
Please check out my Shop page to find out more!
There hasn’t been a lot of time for painting this month, but I am excited to be back working on more canvases inspired by my regular walks around Nidderdale. We’ve had lots of strange light, thick mists, and cloud hanging so low, you could feel the moisture as you walked through it!
I have loads of ideas in the pipeline, but a couple that are done or pretty much so…
Dark Moor
Dark Moor is one of the two that I think are finished, it comes from walking on one of these really dank misty mornings we’ve been having. The colours were there but softened and limited by the light, and the whole effect was deep and dark and bluish-I’ve tried to capture the feeling of standing in this dark open space one morning, engulfed in cloud, and complete quiet…the cloud acting like a blanket blocking out any sound at all.
I’ll get it loaded on the website soon, but meanwhile it is 61cm x 61cm and multi layered and glazed acrylics on canvas….if you’d like to know more just send me a message via the button below.
The second painting I think is about there, also comes from a morning with amazing silvery white light, and almost no visibility, so the landscape forms appeared to melt away. It was a really tangible, physical experience walking through this thick low lying cloud, but the effect was magical and incredibly beautiful.
Walking in Cloud
Walking in Cloud comes from an early morning walk, when the atmosphere was so thick you could feel a tangible veil of water. The light was soft and diffuse, and melted away the structure of the landscape, apart from small hints of grasses and a trace of a dark wall receding into the distance.
I need to get this one loaded on the website too- it is also 61cm x 61cm and painted in many layers of acrylic with a last layer of oil and cold wax.
I think that’s about it from me this month, but please don’t forget to have a look at my studio sale, and to sign up for my course!
As always, thank you so much for all the lovely feedback from the October Newsletter, and do drop me a message if there is anything particular you would like to cover in the future.
Until next month, take care and keep in touch,
Jo xx
All text and images copyright ©️Jo York 2022