Hi Everyone, and welcome to my Newsletter!

So this month has seen the lessening of lockdown, which for me has meant that I’ve been able to get out walking a little further from home, but not quite yet to some of the wild places I miss! I am very conscious though how lucky I am to have countryside close by, with every opportunity to get out in the air, and to watch the changing wildlife and scenery. The image above is Brimham Rocks, one of the amazing inspiring places I’ve been able to visit.

By way of a catch up; North Yorkshire Open Studios happened throughout the first and second weekends of June, with tons going on in the run up, and a load of work for the week afterwards, so all in all not a month when I’ve had much time in the studio! Still, and much to everyone’s relief it was a huge success with many thousands of viewers, and surprisingly from all over the World-people were watching from the USA, Canada, Australia and right across Europe, and we were all taken aback by the positive reaction and buzz the whole thing created. It was so much work though….definitely needed a break afterwards! If you missed seeing my video and those of the other 60+ artists, do go to the NYOS website: https://www.nyos.org.uk/ and click ‘Watch now’-grab a cup of tea/coffee and pull up a chair for some fabulous insights into artists and their work.

Anyway, I have managed to get down to some painting; including these three canvases which are 41cm square and literally just finished (see the first one below)…in fact the are currently drying as I’ve just finished sealing them and adding a final coat of burnished wax.

Now all I need to do is tidy up the edges with a final coat of paint, label the backs, and add the titles. Actually naming pictures can be tricky; although my paintings are often pretty abstract they always come from a particular experience of a specific place..they also often refer to a sense of what might have gone before; history, industry or even geological layers in time, so I try to refer to an aspect of all that in the title.

In this case, this little series or possible triptych, comes from walks up near Greenhow which is high up on the boundary between Nidderdale and Wharfedale. Beneath the surface lie traces of the lead mining that used to happen in this area…in fact there is still a massive working quarry close by.

I think they make an interesting series; working well individually or together. The idea behind them is fragments and layers; some are surface details, and some represent unseen structures deep below.

I’ve also been working on some loose landscape studies as starting points for paintings…These are an important part of the way I work, they’re loose and free, and they are a fantastic way to play with composition ideas. The ones shown above are made using a very minimal range of materials, so they can be done in the studio or outside- in this case, I used just three key materials; Payne’s Grey Acrylic, a Derwent Dark Sketching Pencil, and some Titanium White acrylic. Apart from that I used some brushes and water, and that’s it! I particularly like these Derwent pencils, because they are water soluble, and therefore create wonderful soft washes when you wet the paper, combined with some rich dark marks.

I really try to make these instinctive, responding to the landscapes with no preconceptions. The lines are often done more or less as a continuous line, but with a changing weight to create emphasis.

I’m hoping to have much more painting time next month, and to start working these up onto canvas, so watch this space!

That’s just about it for this month…until next time, keep in touch and follow me on Instagram and Facebook via my website buttons to see more of what I’m up to.

Take care and bye for now. Jo x

*All text and images copyright Jo York 2020.