Hi and welcome to this month’s Newsletter-hope You’re all keeping well.

Throughout the difficult period of lockdown, and especially when things were eased a little, Staveley Nature Reserve became a very important place for me: close enough to justify getting there, quiet and almost always deserted when I’m there…which admittedly is very early! It is genuinely an amazing place with a very particular atmosphere, the picture above was taken in the last few days, so the grasses have grown, and the sky is a deep summery blue. I’ve been collecting material from Staveley for a couple of years now, so the resulting paintings reflect different conditions of light, weather and seasons.

I’ve been meaning to do some work developed around Staveley for ages, and suddenly it clicked in to place what I wanted to do. My work tends to be abstract or semi-abstract, but always with a landscape base…for this Staveley work I decided to go quite minimal and abstracted. I’m not quite sure why, but as I began trying out ideas and developing sketches, the direction it needed to go became clear.

The picture above shows early experiments for the Staveley work. You can see that the focus here is on developing some interesting linear work, and on blocking in key shapes and an early idea of colour palette.

I know they are very simple; rough even, but this stage really helps me to clarify an idea, and is a great starting point for the way I work.

I began by developing a 61cm square canvas. The image below shows work in progress, blocking in and developing colour and the beginnings of texture layers.

I ended up working on three initial canvases, and may well return to the series later. Working on them has been a slow and painstaking process of building up translucent watery glazes in many layers.

Below you can see work in progress on the two additional canvases, with the first on the easel.

There’s the usual collection of tools, colours and equipment including: Liquitex Freestyle Brushes, Golden Acrylics, Catalyst Silicone Wedges, and a range of painting knives.

The canvas below is the first one I worked on, and you can clearly see the development from the earlier photo.

The idea behind it is around deep pools, reflections on the water, and borders of reeds and grasses.

The second canvas, shown below is about deep dark pools and reflected light, bordered by reeds and grasses, and a plantation of scrubby Willow. The colour palette is very limited, and the painting is built up in translucent glazes over opaque key shapes.

The final canvas,( so far) is deeper in its darks, focussing on the water and patches of light, punctuated by the shapes of floating pontoons tethered for birds to nest upon. I liked the balance and rhythm this created between vertical and horizontal shapes.

All three canvases are now ready for some final work; finishing edges, sealing and hand waxing, which is actually a very soothing and enjoyable process, especially as I usually use this time for catching up on Podcasts and listening to music.

My very exciting news is that I am delighted to be able to reveal that I will be exhibiting with the very wonderful Bils and Rye Gallery, which I’ve admired for many years…they are in the process of relocating to an exciting new gallery space in the centre of harrogate. These new canvases and much more will be available from them as part of an exhibition coming shortly-details tbc soon.

Meanwhile if you don’t already, do please follow me on Facebook and Instagram, using the Social Media buttons on this page.

Until next month, take care and keep in touch!

Jo X

*All text and images copyright Jo York 2020