An exploration of line and colour by Nick Kobyluch
AFTER the Covid-enforced fallow year of 2020, York Open Studios returns this weekend for its 20th parade of the city’s creative talent.
Preceded by Friday’s 6pm to 9pm preview evening, the event will see 145 artists and makers open 95 studios, homes and workplaces on July 10 and 11 and July 17 and 18, from 10am to 5pm.
Among them will be 43 debutants, prompting CharlesHutchPress to highlight six newcomers a day over this week, in map guide order, as York prepares for a showcase of ceramic, collage, digital art, illustration, jewellery, mixed media, painting, print, photography, furniture, sculpture and textiles skills this month.
“I love the decisiveness of the pen when committing pen to paper,” says Mark Druery
Mark Druery, drawing, 63 St Paul’s Terrace, Holgate, York
YORKSHIREMAN Mark is inseparably both an architect and an artist.
Trained at Canterbury School of Art and Design, where he developed his love for art, architecture and Italy, he works mainly with technical pens directly onto watercolour paper, to which he applies watercolour wash and accents “if I have the time”.
“I love the immediacy of mark-making and the decisiveness of the pen when committing pen to paper,” he says, ahead of showing sketches and drawings of such favourite places along his travels as York, Yorkshire and Venice in his York Open Studios debut.
“There is always a risk factor when using pen directly and you must constantly adapt when drawing and evolve and change with the process, just like being an architect; I cannot take my building down and start again!”
Mark Druery: Artist and architect
More of Mark’s pen and watercolour sketches are on display in the Momentum Summer Show, the Westside Artists’ exhibition at Blossom Street, York, until September 26.
“I never forget the place where I sat and passed the time and sketched and painted,” he says. “The concentration required in this process to capture a place on paper commits the details to memory far better than any photograph and remains with you forever.”
He will be among the YOS artists welcoming visitors at Friday’s 6pm to 9pm preview.
Kate Akrill’s ceramics, made for “those who love the spookier side of life”
Kate Akrill, ceramics, 14 Caroline Close, Holgate, York
BY day a librarian, by night Kate is a self-taught potter, burning the midnight oil to make skulls, cauldrons and shadow-box altars.
Under the guise of Skullduggery Ceramics, she creates “lovely and unusual, handmade, ceramic homeware and jewellery for those who love the spookier side of life”.
Drawing on strange and peculiar themes from gothic literature, witchcraft, superstition and Victorian mourning, she makes subtly unusual jewellery, combining traditional motifs with unexpected imagery and textures.
Kate Akrill: Diurnal librarian, nocturnal potter
Kate uses hand-building techniques and distorts the original purpose of found objects and moulds to turn clay into striking – and sometimes unsettling – designs.
Like Mark Druery, she is taking part in the Momentum Summer Show, mounted by Westside Artists at Blossom Street Gallery, and will be opening her home studio for the YOS preview evening.
Mixed-media work by Lisa Lundqvist
Lisa Lundqvist, mixed media, garden studio behind 55 Green Lane, York
LISA uses foraged and found objects in nature to create art that reflects her love and respect for the natural environment around her, whether expressed through mixed-media assemblage, installations, eco-printed textiles or paintings in oil and cold wax.
After pursuing an international career in portrait and wedding photography, Lisa expanded her creative skills by completing an Access Art & Design diploma last year, attaining a distinction.
Lisa Lundqvist: Developing work in both fine art and textiles
An emerging body of art in mixed media led to her acceptance onto an MA course in Creative Practice, where she is now developing work in textiles and fine art.
“My main focus of research is in discovering environmentally conscious techniques for eco-dyeing and printing textiles using local plants,” she says.
The first chance to visit her garden studio will be at Friday evening’s preview.
Nick Kobyluch: Saw the light; left London for York
Nick Kobyluch, drawing and painting, 73 Acomb Road, York
NICK moved to York in 2018 from London, where he had been part of Skylark Galleries.
His drawings and paintings range from landscapes and portraits to both representational and abstract, experimental mark-making in an exploration of line and colour.
“There will be a range of framed and unframed pieces, as well as sketchbooks, on show to view,” says Nick, who has taken part in many shows and art fairs over the past few years and has his work in many private collections.
“My work preserves precious, fleeting moments,” says portrait artist Lucy McElroy
Lucy McElroy, portraiture, 24 Manor Drive South, York
PORTRAIT artist Lucy combines traditional techniques of drawing and painting with expressive mark-making to create beautiful, emotive images with a realistic likeness to her subjects.
She takes commissions as well as dedicating time to developing her own creative practice in her home studio. “Deeply aware of the transient nature of life, my work preserves precious, fleeting moments,” says Lucy, who works in oils, charcoal and soft pastels.
“My present practice looks at family relationships and explores how our family histories shape who we are today.”
Lucy McElroy: Exploring how our family histories shape who we are today
Lucy, who studied Fine Art at Leeds University, has enjoyed 16 years of teaching art and now balances her time between the joys and challenges of being a mother to a young family, teaching at All Saints RC School, in York, and her artistic creativity.
You can see more of Lucy’s portraits at the Westside Artists show at Blossom Street Gallery, York, through the summer.
Glass bobbin, “invisible” work, by Liz O’Connell
Liz O’Connell, glass, 53 Plantation Drive, York
LIZ is an emerging artist of Irish and Yorkshire heritage, who uses many techniques and processes in glass, making objects in her York studio.
Fascinated by textiles and issues of “invisibility” and “skill value”, she completed a degree in Contemporary Craft at York College and then studied for a Masters at the National Glass Centre in Sunderland, where she expanded her practice to incorporate film and performance.
“I explore domestic narratives by making glass textiles and using them performatively, exploring complex ideas about gender and ‘invisible’ work,” says Liz. “I re-appropriate domestic detergents and materials; subverting domestic chores by filming the process and by creating film stills and canvases.
“I explore domestic narratives by making glass textiles and using them performatively,” says Liz O’Connell
“I want us to consider the psychological impact of constant caring, giving and invisible labour. The films and stills capture the process and the domestic sphere in which I work. The failure to measure or acknowledge unpaid labour is the biggest data gap in collecting economic statistics.”
Liz will give demonstrations of her working practice each day, preceded by opening her studio for Friday’s preview evening.
TOMORROW: Fiona Lane, Ealish Wilson, Amy Butcher, Joanna Lisowiec, Dee Thwaite and Tabitha Grove.
Father Of The Flowers, York artist Linda Combi’s memorial tribute to Abu Waad, The Last Gardener Of Aleppo
ERUM Aamir, Debbie Loane and Linda Combi form the suitably triangular structure of Pyramid Gallery’s summer show in York.
Not one, but three exhibitions will run in two rooms at the Stonegate gallery from Friday (9/7/2021) to September 5.
For Celestial Garden, Manchester ceramic artist Erum Aamir has made intricate porcelain sculptures that fuse her scientific research and artistic imaginations.
“Nature is a source of inspiration for me,” says Manchester ceramic artist and scientific researcher Erum Aamir
Erum was awarded first place for excellence at the 2020 British Craft Trade Fair in Harrogate by Pyramid proprietor Terry Brett, winning a solo show at Pyramid as the prize.
“I’m a ceramic artist and nature is a source of inspiration for me,” she says. “I enthuse by the details in depth, therefore I explore through the eye of a microscope. Sometimes the compositions found in the microscopic study and my imagination’s interpretation bypasses what is found in nature.
“This blurred line between reality and created reality intrigues my practice. If only for a moment, one might lose oneself in the curiosity of the composition, perhaps creating a personal narrative with the piece.
Pyramid Gallery’s poster for Erum Aamir’s exhibition, Celestial Garden
“This process of creation and exploration forms a shared experience between us. In my work, there’s always a repetition of single or more than one element which mimics the process of growth by repetition. I like this repetitive action – it’s not a thoughtless activity but is meditative.
“Moreover, the repetitive nature of bringing together many components creates a rhythm and facilitates an active trance of intention.”
Seascape and landscape paintings in assorted sizes by Easingwold artist Debbie Loane will complement Erum’s intricate sculptures in Pyramid’s upstairs front room under the title of The Peace Of Wild Places.
Easingwold artist Debbie Loane at work on the North York Moors
“As a painter, I’ve always sought out wild expanses, the vast open moorlands of the North York Moors or dramatic coastlines of the North for artistic inspiration,” says Debbie, who works from a farm home and studio in Alne Lane, just outside the market town of Easingwold.
“Over the past 18 months, when all our freedoms have been restricted, like so many I found myself seeking solace in the wild places I could find on my doorstep: a morning coffee taken on the doorstep in the morning sun watching a spider methodically weaving its web between a plant pot full of neglect and a wellie boot.
“The spider was completely at one with its environment knowing at once in that moment what it was supposed to be doing. How that spider taught me a lesson!”
Pyramid Gallery’s poster for Debbie Loane’s exhibition, The Peace Of Wild Places. Ignore the closing date: it WILL be September 5, not September 3!
During the past lockdown when home-schooling and simply staying afloat financially became Debbie’s priorities, her creative endeavours shifted to focus on wider things. Such as? “Tree planting 1,400 new native trees on our land; sowing seeds; teaching myself new things to do with my hands, like crochet (maddeningly); making paints with natural materials and running for many miles through the landscape, both around my home and on my beloved North York Moors,” she says.
“Consequently, my relationship with nature has deepened, as has my understanding of why I paint and what I’m painting. That spider has taught me to trust my creative instincts, to pause when I need to, to explore when it is calling. Most importantly of all, I have discovered the landscapes and wildness that I need are as much within me as out there.”
In 2005, Debbie established Lund Gallery in converted farm buildings next to her studio. “To give me time to concentrate on my own practice, the gallery no longer has regular opening hours; it opens for pop-up exhibitions and events,” she says. To keep up with her gallery news, sign up to her mailing list via mailchi.mp/648cd8024ee3/debbieloane.
Linda Combi in her York studio
York artist Linda Combi will complete the trio of exhibitions with The Last Gardener Of Aleppo , a series of original collages and mixed-media artworks and giclee prints that form a moving tribute to Abu Waad in a charitable show in aid of The Lemon Tree Trust and the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees.
In 2016 Krishnan Guru-Murthy presented a Channel 4 News story about “The Last Gardener of Aleppo” that introduced viewers to Abu Waad, whose name means “The Father of the Flowers”.
“This genial Syrian ran the last garden centre in the besieged city of Aleppo, assisted by his 13-year-old son Ibrahim,” says Linda, who first exhibited these works in a Covid-curtailed run at the Angel On The Green, Bishopthorpe Road. “Abu Waad told us of his love of flowers and plants; about how their fragrance, beauty, and resilience were life affirming and joyful.
Linda Combi’s poster for The Last Gardener Of Aleppo fund-raising exhibition for The Lemon Tree Trust and the UNHCR
“We watched his large hands gently planting seedlings, pruning trees and making bouquets of roses for his customers. Despite the on-going bombardment, the growth and renewal within Abu Waad’s garden made it a ‘small oasis of colour and life’ amid the death and destruction.”
The Channel 4 film portrayed the bond between Ibrahim and Abu Waad as they worked together in the garden centre. “We see the father stretched out on an old settee during a tea break laughing with his son; a picture of relaxed contentment. But one can also detect fear and stress in the eyes of both of them,” says Linda.
The story closed with the death of Abu Waad, killed by a barrel bomb that landed near the garden centre. “His oasis is now closed, and Ibrahim is left without a father, lost and tearful as he visits his father’s grave,” says Linda.
“It is a devastating end, and so it felt important to me to celebrate Abu Waad and Ibrahim and their work in the oasis they created. I’ve illustrated the words of Abu Waad, which so perfectly describe the joy that plants and flowers can bring to us all.
Blue Flower, from Linda Combi’s series of collages, mixed-media artworks and giclee prints
“However, hope returned earlier this year when I was contacted with news that Abu Waad’s son, Ibrahim, had been found and is living with his sister and an uncle in Syria.”
Ibrahim hopes to continue his father’s work as a gardener. “So far we’ve helped him buy a solar energy system,” says Linda. “The Lemon Tree Trust is aiming to help Ibrahim with seeds and equipment for his life as a gardener. My piece, Ibrahim’s Hope was made after receiving this good news.”
A percentage of proceeds from picture and card sales will be divided between the UNHCR [the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees agency mandated to aid and protect refugees] and the Lemon Tree Trust charity that helps refugees create gardens in migrant camps.
Pyramid Gallery’s opening hours are: Monday to Friday, 10am to 5pm; Saturdays, 10am to 5.30pm; Sundays, 12.30pm to 4.30pm, but please check by texting Terry Brett on 07805 029254 to check a specific Sunday opening.
AFTER the Covid-enforced fallow year of 2020, York Open Studios returns this weekend for its 20th parade of the city’s creative talent.
Preceded by Friday’s preview evening, the event will see 145 artists and makers open 95 studios, homes and workplaces on July 10 and 11 and July 17 and 18, from 10am to 5pm.
Among them will be 43 debutants, prompting CharlesHutchPress to highlight six newcomers a day over the week ahead, in map guide order, as York prepares for a showcase of ceramic, collage, digital art, illustration, jewellery, mixed media, painting, print, photography, furniture, sculpture and textiles skills this month.
“My work aims to abstract the modern, decaying landscape with textures and geometric composition,” says Mick Leach
Mick Leach, painting, 3 Thorpe Street, Scarcroft Road, York
AS a self-taught artist and full-time worker, Mick’s side-career in painting has been taking shape steadily since early 2016. “I’m still learning,” he says.
He works mainly with acrylic paint and chalk powder, along with other media, that he applies to MDF board to achieve a layered, industrial aesthetic in his abstract paintings.
Mick Leach: Self-taught abstract artist
He draws inspiration from El Lissitzky, the Russian artist, designer, photographer, typographer, polemicist and architect, and Kazemir Malevich, the pioneering fellow Russian avant-garde artist and art theorist.
“Pursuing my urge to create, my work aims to abstract the modern, decaying landscape with textures and geometric composition,” says Mick, who won the 2019 Art& York Best Raw Talent award.
Look out too for Evie Leach’s jewellery designs in the same house. Both Mick and Evie will take part in the preview evening from 6pm to 9pm.
Ceramicist Pietro Sanna in his studio
Pietro Sanna, ceramics, 44 Dale Street, York
BORN in Sardinia and now working and living in York, Pietro has always been interested in art. During his degree studies in Contemporary 3D Craft at York College, he started to focus on the use of the ceramic medium.
Since graduating, he has taken part in The Kunsthuis Annual Ceramics Show, at the Dutch House, Mill Green Farm, Crayke, and in exhibitions at the Silson Contemporary Gallery, in Harrogate, where he is a gallery artist.
Pietro creates hand-built vessels as carriers for broad types of narratives; his practice taking inspiration from experimentation with clay and the possibilities it offers during the act of making.
Charlotte Dawson: Artist and facilitator
Charlotte Dawson, painting, 44 Dale Street, York
PIETRO’S partner, Charlotte is a vital player in York’s art scene, organising the York River Art Market, by Lendal Bridge, where artists and craftspeople set up stalls on Dame Judi Dench Walk at weekends in the summer months.
In her own work, facilitator Charlotte is a multi-disciplined artist, focusing on abstract painting and jewellery. She began her formal arts education in 1996 at Westwood Art College, Scarborough, later taking a short course at York School of Jewellery in 2010.
“My painting seeks to create a visual language, working intuitively to discover interesting compositions and colours through energetic mark making,” says Charlotte Dawson
After completing an Access course in Art & Design at York College in 2012, she gained a BA Hons in Art & Design Interdisciplinary at Leeds University of Art in 2015.
“My painting seeks to create a visual language, working intuitively to discover interesting compositions and colours through energetic mark making, while my jewellery designs are led by technique and colour to create contemporary and everyday pieces,” says Charlotte.
A ghostly artwork by Caroline Lewis
Caroline Lewis, collage, 24 Hob Moor Terrace, York
LANDSCAPES and ghosts vie for centre stage in Caroline’s artwork.
Scenes of (mainly) Yorkshire inspire the landscapes, depicted in collage, lino print and paint. As for the ghosts, images sparked by Covid-19 and abandoned places are captured in collage, transfer printing and paint.
Caroline Lewis: Ceramicist, jewellery designer, delicatessen owner, gardener, pianist and collage artist
Caroline has a BA Hons in ceramics from West Surrey College of Art and studied on a one-year jewellery course full time at Maidenhead College of Art.
She owned a delicatessen for 30 years until taking early retirement in 2017 to give her more time to take up art again, along with gardening, re-learning the piano, walking and just enjoying life full stop.
David Bowie, portrait, by Lucie Wake. “It’s all about the eyes,” she says, and indeed the eyes have it
Lucie Wake, painting, 15 Slingsby Grove, York
ART runs like a seam through the life of Lucie, who has a BA Hons in Ceramics.
She built up a successful licensing company, Hocus Pocus, her designs adorning many products across most of the high-street stores. In 2005, she ventured into painting, concentrating on portraits, both of people and animals.
Lucie captures the soul of her portrait subjects through her expressive use of delicious slabs of oil paint on canvas. “It’s all about the eyes, they capture your attention,” she says.
Lucie Wake: Portrait artist for people and canines alike
Lucie, who promotes her art via Facet Painting, will be participating in Friday’s preview night from 6pm to 9pm and will be giving demonstrations over the two weekends.
Her work also can be found in the Momentum Summer Show, presented by the York art group Westside Artists at Blossom Street Gallery, by Micklegate Bar, York, until September 26. Gallery opening hours are: Friday, Saturday, Sunday and Monday, 10am to 4pm; Covid safety measures are in place.
Stoneware-fired porcelain sculptural vessels by Pamela Thorby
Pamela Thorby, ceramics, 11 Middlethorpe Grove, York
PAMELA left behind a distinguished career in music as a recorder virtuoso and academic to pursue a new path in fine art.
Her stoneware-fired porcelain sculptural vessels are “imagined but reminiscent of a multiplicity of organic forms”: whether interstellar, fossil, micro-organism or coral.
“I aspire to make work light enough to be hung in the air; strong enough to be placed piece inside piece, creating new possibilities of form and meaning,” says Pamela. “My aim is to translate the dynamism and sensitivity of my former career as a musician into a ‘visual music’ in clay.”
She is “so excited” to have been selected for her first participation in York Open Studios. “This was another one of the goals that I set myself and here we are, in my third year as a ceramicist, and I’m working towards a major body of work for this month’s fantastic event,” she says.
“I aspire to make work light enough to be hung in the air,” says Pamela Thorby
During lockdown, Pamela worked intensively towards a collection of thrown functional stoneware to partner with her sculptural hand-built porcelain forms. “The concentrated discipline of daily wheel practice has provided meditative solace and structure in extraordinary times,” she says.
In her esteemed career in music, Pamela was professor of recorder at the Royal Academy of Music in London until 2019; the regular recorder player for Welsh composer Sir Karl Jenkins’s projects and a member of such groups as La Serenissima, New London Consort and Palladian Ensemble with Baroque violinist Rachel Podger.
In May 2007, she performed a radical fusion of jazz and folk music with Perfect Houseplants at the National Centre for Early Music in York, an innovative experience she described memorably as: “I’m a bit like a gherkin on a salad plate: I’m adding piquancy to the mix.”
She will give demonstrations during the two YOS weekends and will be opening up her home studio for the Friday preview too.
TOMORROW: Mark Druery, Kate Akrill, Lisa Lundqvist, Nick Kobyluch, Lucy McElroy and Liz O’Connell.
AFTER the Covid-enforced fallow year of 2020, York Open Studios returns this weekend for its 20th parade of the city’s creative talent.
Preceded by Friday’s preview evening, the event will see 145 artists and makers open 95 studios, homes and workplaces on July 10 and 11 and July 17 and 18, from 10am to 5pm.
Among them will be 43 debutants, prompting CharlesHutchPress to highlight six newcomers a day over the week ahead, in map guide order, as York prepares for a showcase of ceramic, collage, digital art, illustration, jewellery, mixed media, painting, print, photography, furniture, sculpture and textiles skills this month.
From a chrysalis to a butterfly: Caroline Utterson’s textile work in progress
CAROLINE combines her two great loves, photography and fabric, in creating one-off embroidered, appliquéd and felted artworks influenced as much by her imagination as by the landscape around her.
After graduating from Manchester Metropolitan University with a degree in textiles, she worked for North Yorkshire Police for eight years before travelling to Thailand to teach English.
On her return, using the tools she had to hand, Caroline taught herself freehand machine embroidery, a craft she likens to drawing with a sewing machine.
Caroline Utterson: Inspired by animals, nature, her northern roots and love of travel and photography
“I’m greatly inspired by animals, nature, my northern roots and my love of travel and photography,” she says. “Forever taking photos of anything that catches my eye, I then convert my pictures into textile artworks, using fabrics, buttons, beads and bits that I have collected over the years. The environment is important to me, so I use many recycled and vintage fabrics in my work.
“Having worked as a seamstress for four years, I collected and saved hoards of fabric from going into landfill and I love nothing more than breathing new life into these discarded ‘scraps’.”
Caroline launched her It’s Cute textile shop in September 2013. “The name was coined as a result of a happy acronym of my name and what I do: Caroline Utterson Textiles and Embroidery,” she says.
REBECCA specialises in batik, a dye-resist technique using wax that she utilises to make silk scarves, ties, brooches, framed pictures, cards and wall hangings, applying both traditional Indonesian and modern methods.
She first became inspired by batik more than 30 years ago in Malaysia. Subsequently she attended batik workshops and evening classes to learn the techniques.
“I love to be creative with colour and the freedom of abstract designs, and I particularly enjoy the fluidity, flexibility, unpredictability and crackle effect of the wax,” says Rebecca, who is influenced and inspired by the shapes and hues of the Yorkshire countryside and the changing seasons.
“I love to be creative with colour and the freedom of abstract designs,” says Rebecca Mason
She specialises in doing batik on cotton and silk, including velour. “My ties and scarves are each uniquely designed, and my cotton pictures are varied in theme and use a range of batik techniques.”
Rebecca will be one of seven artists taking part in York Open Studios at Southbank Methodist Church, along with Nicola Lee, Caroline Utterson, Colin Black, Donna Maria Taylor, Carolyn Coles and Karen Winship. Between them, they specialise in batik, seascapes, landscapes, paintings, textiles, mixed media, collage, work on paper, acrylics and embroidery.
Should you be wondering, the word ‘batik’ originates from the Javanese ‘tik’ and means ‘to dot’. To make a batik, selected areas of the cloth are blocked out by brushing or drawing hot wax over them, and the cloth is then dyed. The parts covered in wax resist the dye and remain the original colour.
Henry Steele: “Relies on his eye to give a sense of aesthetic”
Henry Steele, ceramics, Millthorpe School, Nunthorpe Avenue, York
A DIAGNOSIS of autism gives Henry an unusual vision of the world around him. From an early age, he refused to conform to numerical concepts. Instead, he relies on his eye to give a sense of aesthetic.
In his art, he uses mixed media, focusing primarily on ceramics. “I’m particularly interested in ancient manufacturing techniques that favour sustainable methods and I often employ discarded items as tools for decoration,” he says.
Sarah Cornwall at the wheel
Sarah Cornwall, ceramics, Millthorpe School, Nunthorpe Avenue, York
SARAH makes hand-built and wheel thrown ceramics in the form of chunky pots and tableware.
At present studying in the final year of a Contemporary Craft degree, she focuses on experimenting with form and colour. By compressing and manipulating the clay, her work takes on an identity of its own, producing a contrast of swirling bright colour against the depth of clay.
A piece of silver jewellery by Laura Masheder
Laura Masheder, silver jewellery, Millthorpe School, Nunthorpe Avenue, York
LAURA trained originally as a classical singer, attending Leeds College of Music, and then left to raise a family and work in catering management for a decade.
On rekindling her creative ambitions, she studied for an Access to Higher Education course in art and design, leading to her degree studies in Contemporary Craft at York College, from where she graduated with first class honours in 2020.
Laura Masheder in her studio
In her hand-crafted hallmarked silver jewellery, she specialises in chasing and repoussé techniques, while also experimenting with wax casting and silver clay.
Her jewellery is a mix of figurative nature studies and abstract geometric pieces, as can be seen at boochica.com.
Silva Rerum jewellery by Fiona Hirst
Silva Rerum (Fiona Hirst), jewellery, Millthorpe School, Nunthorpe Avenue, York
INFLUENCED by travel, anthropology and history, Fiona uses traditional silver and goldsmithing techniques, combined with digital technology.
As with many contemporary jewellers, she has a background in fine art and textiles. Several years ago, she decided to complete a second degree, specialising on mixed media and jewellery techniques. At the same time, she completed a P.G.C.E. and now teaches art, design and media.
Fiona’s designs are strong and modern, sometimes with a narrative element, and at present she is developing a collection based on inspirational women throughout history.
Fiona Hirst: Influenced by travel, anthropology and history
TOMORROW: Mick Leach, Pietro Sanna, Charlotte Dawson, Caroline Lewis, Lucie Wake and Pamela Thorby.
Minster Flypast, retro digital print, by York Open Studios 2021 artist Lincoln Lightfoot
AFTER the Covid-enforced fallow year of 2020, York Open Studios returns at the weekend for its 20th festival celebration of the city’s creative talent
Preceded by Friday’s preview evening, the event will see 145 artists and makers open 95 studios, homes and workplaces on July 10 and 11 and July 17 and 18, from 10am to 5pm.
Among them will be 43 debutants, prompting CharlesHutchPress to highlight six newcomers a day over the week ahead, in map guide order, as York prepares for a showcase of ceramic, collage, digital art, illustration, jewellery, mixed media, painting, print, photography, furniture, sculpture and textiles skills this month.
Pennie Lordan: Exploring the theme of Edgelands
Pennie Lordan, painting, Greenwood Barn Studio, Moor Lane, Copmanthorpe, York
PENNIE’S oil paintings explore the stark contrast and parallels that exist between loss and hope, sensitivity and brutality, isolation and connectedness through the theme of Edgelands.
“My paintings are developed from studies that come directly from location sketches, often on pre-prepared grounds that reference a sense of composition and atmosphere,” she says.
“These studies then develop into oil paintings, built on varied prepared grounds and developed through the process of multiple thin layers of oil paint and cold wax, often applied, wiped back and re-applied.”
Pennie Lordan
Her work is painted on linen, incorporating subtle stitching, or canvas or disregarded found materials, such as pitched pine, board or aluminium.
Londoner Pennie runs two creative businesses in York with her husband, having arrived here with a background in animation, art and education. She has completed three years of studying landscape painting at Leith School of Art in Edinburgh.
Day Of The Dinosaurs, oil painting, by Lincoln Lightfoot
Lincoln Lightfoot, digital prints and oil paintings, 118 Brunswick Street, South Bank, York. First weekend only
LINCOLN’S surreal images draw on the B-movie imagery of the 1950s and ‘60s, his broad theme being ridiculous and surreal encounters with beasts that appear to us in recognisable locations.
Not so much King Kong climbing the Empire State Building in New York as a tentacled dayglo Creature From The Bottom Of The Ouse attacking a bridge in York, as the ancient city’s heritage resonates in the present day.
“Walking through York’s streets, your creative mind can just let loose and go to work,” says Lincoln Lightfoot
What does the city of York conjure in Lincoln’s mind? “It’s a story-book city, conjuring up tales of the past. Walking through its streets, your creative mind can just let loose and go to work. It’s not hard to imagine incredible things happening there because they already have.”
In his artistic response to walking those city streets, the Fine Art graduate from York St John University questions what might be in store for 2021.
So, Lincoln, what exactly is in store this year for you and the rest of us? “Aliens, man, definitely aliens,” he warns. “There are more influential individuals making statements and releasing information by the day.”
A textile design by Amy Stubbs
Amy Stubbs,textiles,51 Balmoral Terrace, York
RELOCATED to York in a return to her northern roots, pattern print designer Amy now works from the PICA Studios artist hub in Grape Lane.
This textile design graduate from Falmouth University draws inspiration “from a wealth of experience brought to her by her strong Yorkshire family heritage and the opportunity to experience varying cultures”.
Amy Stubbs: Strong mark-making, motifs and collaging
Consequently, Amy’s textile work combines manually drawn abstract elements with the aid of digital technology to create her surface pattern prints that feature strong mark-making motifs and collaging.
She will be sharing her York Open Studios space with Emily Stubbs, who creates hand-built sculptural ceramic vessels – cheeky, bright and full of life in character – that explore the relationship between colour, form and texture.
Two of Jilly Lovett’s one-of-a-kind dolls
Jilly Lovett, textiles, 212 Bishopthorpe Road, York
JILLY designs and sews one-of-a-kind dolls in a folk art style, using recycled felt, incorporating embroidery, applique and other vintage finds to create original works for display.
Since studying Fine Art at Edinburgh University, she has worked in creative industries variously as a botanical illustrator, editor, art director and now a textile artist.
Jilly Lovett: Creator of quirky, characterful dolls
Her main focus is on creating quirky, characterful art dolls with unique details, such as pearly kings with button-embellished coats and fearsome pirates armed with silver fish knives.
Private commissions give Jilly the chance to research new subjects and to experiment with different materials and patterns.
Joseph Rowntree Theatre, by Elliot Harrison
Elliot Harrison, illustration, 21 Finsbury Street, York
ELLIOT creates architectural illustrations, prints and posters showcasing iconic York buildings and views, favouring a vibrant colour palette inspired by Art Deco design and vintage 20th century travel posters.
His distinctive retro York portfolio has been catching the eye for the past five years, whether at Frankie & Johnny’s Cookshop, Blossom Street Gallery or O & M at Snowhome or in exhibitions at York Hospital and the Rowntree Park Reading Café.
Among his most popular illustrations are Rowntree Park, Bishopthorpe Road, the Blossom Street Odeon cinema, the former Clifton Cinema, the former Terry’s factory, the Joseph Rowntree Theatre and York Minster.
Elliot Harrison: York’s future of retro art
His commissions include illustrations for York Theatre Royal, The Piece Hall, in Halifax, York Bunny Trail and home and shop-front portraits.
Elliot, who gained a degree in art and design from York St John University, has expanded his repertoire to take in running medals, mugs, coasters, cards, Christmas cards, York calendars and hand-pressed lino prints of York architecture.
Demonstrations will be available over the two weekends. In the meantime, check out his work via elliot@york360.co.uk.
Nicola Lee’s work combines drawing, photography and folding
NICOLA has a quiet practice, wherein observation and encounter are fundamental aspects. She uses drawing, folding and photography, exploring through process and the inherent voice of materials to record, respond and evoke her experience of looking.
Her practice has drawn from notions of traditional Japanese aesthetics found in Tanka poetry. Under the shadow of these influences, she uses a digital camera, plays with camera-less photographic methods and creates series of drawings and artist books.
Nicola Lee: Drawn to line, pattern and shape occurring in peripheral space
“My visual interest lies beyond the object,” Nicola says. “I’m drawn to line, pattern and shape occurring in peripheral space. A space which is fluid, ambiguous and lacking in definition. A space in which the peripheral becomes the object.
” I use process and material to play with ideas of repetition, reduction and abstraction in order to explore my encounter with the space between.”
NEXT UP: Caroline Utterson, Rebecca Mason, Henry Steele, Sarah Cornwall, Laura Masheder and Silva Rerum.
Kitty Greenbrown: Spoken-word poet making her York Open Studios debut on the second weekend with Rust, her collaboration with artist Peter Roman
AFTER the Covid-enforced fallow year of 2020, York Open Studios returns next weekend for its 20th showcase of the city’s creative talent
Preceded by next Friday’s preview evening, the event will see 145 artists and makers open 95 studios, homes and workplaces on July 10 and 11 and July 17 and 18, from 10am to 5pm.
Among them will be 43 debutants, prompting CharlesHutchPressto highlight six newcomers a day over the week ahead, in map guide order, as York prepares for a showcase of ceramic, collage, digital art, illustration, jewellery, mixed media, painting, print, photography, furniture, sculpture and textiles skills this month.
A vibrant micro-landscape by Rosebay
Rosebay, vibrant micro-landscapes in acrylic, 25, Turners Croft, Heslington
ROSEBAY uses the quick, direct method of marker pens filled with acrylic to produce big, bold canvases, drawing on elements of pop art, graffiti art and cartography to celebrate the hidden, unsung corners of the natural world.
Rosebay started painting in 2009, inspired by the Sydney coastline in Australia. Informed by her background in biology, her work incorporated abstracted natural forms, from forest canopies to tiny sea creatures.
After an exhibition in Sydney, her return to the UK brought a fresh palette of increasingly vibrant colours and a move to tightly focused micro-landscapes. The shoreline remains a huge inspiration and, appropriately, she has exhibited in Aldeburgh, Suffolk, and Saltburn-by-the-Sea.
“I like to exaggerate and intensify colours,” says Rosebay
“Working from a mixture of memory and photographs, I focus on one small area – a limpet-covered rock, the trunk of a tree – and this becomes my micro-landscape with its own topography,” says Rosebay.
“Features within it are stylised to varying degrees, sometimes to the point where they appear completely abstract. Simple forms, such as the white circles representing barnacles, are often repeated many times.”
Her paintings sometimes resemble maps. “Those water channels or rock striations can look like roads, patches of seaweed like green parks in a city. It adds to the feeling of a landscape where observers can lose themselves,” she reasons.
“I like to exaggerate and intensify colours: as well as making everything more vivid, it takes my work a further step away from ‘reality’, which I like. Each block of colour is delineated by a border of dark violet, which is the shade I associate with deepest shadow.”
A bright, intricate hand-cut paper collage by Elena Skoreyko Wagner
Elena Skoreyko Wagner, collage illustration, The Drey Studio, 16a Heslington Road, York
CANADIAN illustrator Elena creates bright, intricate hand-cut paper collages, re-using paper snippets imbued with their own histories to assemble poetic images that illustrate intimate narratives and emotional experiences.
Elena completed a degree in studio art at York University, Toronto, in 2006, and then spent a decade winding her way through odd jobs, a Masters in occupational therapy, interrupted briefly by a surprise baby, followed immediately by a hop across the Atlantic to Bonn, Germany, then York, en route to illustration.
“Some former professors asked me to illustrate a paediatric assessment and suddenly, everything made sense,” she says. “I now work as a freelance illustrator and maker of zines and collages. My work is often autobiographical, depicting women and children to explore personal and social issues and uncover wonder and magic in the ordinary.”
“My work is often autobiographical, depicting women and children to explore personal and social issues,” says Elena
Elena, settled into York with her German economist husband, Achim, and their two children, sells original artworks, prints and zines through Elena’s Treehouse. “I can be found most days nestled in a nook, manifesting a rainbow tornado of paper snippets, or making equally impressive messes with my small protégés,” she says.
On May 17 and 18, she took part in York Theatre Royal’s reopening brace of Love Bites performances, collaborating with composer and singer James Cave and writer Bethan Ellis on the five-minute musical theatre piece Magic, inspired by a lockdown poem by Elena, who made a miniature paper theatre that re-created her allotment and was operated by her on stage.
Elena “seeks to find magic and uncover meaning in the mundane”. “York is a beautiful city, which in many ways makes it easier to find magic,” she says. “There are snickelways that look straight out of Tolkien, and crumbling walls, climbing with vines, straight from The Secret Garden!”
Emma Crockatt’s works are works full of brightly coloured animals, flowers and seasons
Emma Crockatt, painting, The Drey Studio, 16a Heslington Road, York
INSPIRED by nature, patterns and objects, Emma moves between painting, collage and drawing and now she is exploring textiles and print too.
Emma moved to London in 2006 to study History of Art at Goldsmiths, progressing to an MA in Illustration at Camberwell College of Art.
Emma Crockatt at work
In 2017, she returned to York, where she makes works full of brightly coloured animals, flowers and seasons, taking pleasure in her everyday surroundings.
Kitty Greenbrown and Peter Roman, multi-media, Arts Barge, Foss Basin, York. July 17 and 18 only
SPOKEN-WORD poet Kitty (or Katie) Greenbrown and artist Peter Roman collaborate to deliver multi-media storytelling pieces, such as Magpie Bridge for Stockton Arc, marking the 50th anniversary of the Moon landings, and Green In Our Memory for City of York Council’s First World War commemorations.
Rust was premiered on the River Ouse at the 2019 Great Yorkshire Fringe, when presented in collaboration with York Theatre Royal and Arts Barge. Proving Rust never sleeps, it returns on the second weekend of York Open Studios for screenings 10.30am, 1pm and 3pm.
Artwork for Kitty Greenbrown and Peter Roman’s Rust
“Rust takes us back to when the Ouse teemed with working barges, you knew your place or else and jazz was the devil itself,” says Kitty, who introduces herself as a “performance poet with an incurable appetite for playing with language”.
“I have a huge interest in creating multi-media, immersive storytelling experiences that stretch the bounds of what poetry can be. I’ve been performing live and making film-poems with musicians, artists and filmmakers since 2016. Collaboration is big part of what interests me.”
Kitty adds: “For me, it’s always been about telling stories. I went on a camping holiday to Brittany when I was about eight and it tipped it down with rain. Every day.
Peter Roman and Kitty Greenbrown
“There were loads of bitey insects and the toothpaste tasted weird. My mum burnt a hole in the roof of the tent too, with the camping stove. On the first night.
“I lay on a camp bed, which was standing in a couple of inches of water, and copied out every word of a Famous Five book into a jotter with squared paper. You’ll find the jotters always have squared paper in France. Then I got bored and started writing my own stuff. I’ve never really stopped.”
For Love Bites at York Theatre Royal in May, Kitty combined with fellow artist-producers Robert Powell and Ben Pugh to present The Angels Of Lendal Bridge.
Gypsy Moth, print, by Carrie Lyall
Carrie Lyall, printmaking, 2a, Riccall Grange, King Rudding Lane, Riccall
SELF-TAUGHT printmaker Carrie runs the Rose & Hen business, selling her linocut prints, illustrations and handmade books inspired by nature. Using botanical themes, she creates delicate silhouettes and patterns in contrasting colours, employing pigment-rich, oil-based inks.
“I connect with nature while out walking, taking photographs or collecting subject matter, to be sketched and transformed into design ideas at home,” she says.
Carrie Lyall: Creates delicate silhouettes and patterns in contrasting colours
“My favourite part of the process is cutting the designs, and I often get completely immersed in creating marks and lines.”
Carrie is a member of York Printmakers and a volunteer team leader for Etsy Team York (roseandhen.etsy.com). She will be demonstrating her printmaking skills at 11am and 3pm each day over the two weekends.
“I speak through robotic figures and grotesque forms to communicate provocative messages,” says Kevin McNulty
Kevin McNulty, neo-expressive mono prints smeared with social commentary, spray paint and oil stick, 39 Maple Avenue, Bishopthorpe, York
KEVIN describes himself as a compulsive printmaker, who explores themes such as identity and the human condition in his bold limited-edition prints.
“Experimenting with process and technique, I interweave modernity with the absurd to build complex and captivating designs,” he says. “I find inspiration in the everyday. I build layers for my prints using anything I can lay my hands on, including found items.” Even mobile phone parts and discarded teabags.
Influenced by Neo-Expressionism, Surrealism, Einstein and his grandad’s Bedford Rascal van, he mixes stencilled layers, automatic mark making and spontaneous hand-drawn images in his creativity.
“Compulsive” printmaker Kevin McNulty
Kevin’s working practice is underpinned by a desire to make “pure prints by pulling each image by hand and embracing the fortuitous accidents that evolve each design as it transitions from laptop to ink and paper”.
“Using both images and words, I speak through robotic figures and grotesque forms to communicate provocative messages,” he says of his explorations of social and political issues through the eyes of a six-year-old boy.
“Supported by a graphic primitivism, I present unfiltered ideas and emotion by blending naïve child-like expression with a mature consciousness to tackle contemporary issues and to gain a better understanding of the world.” Find his work at kevinmcnultyprints.com.
Tomorrow: Pennie Lordan; Lincoln Lighfoot; Amy Stubbs; Jilly Lovett; Elliot Harrison and Nicola Lee.
TWO Big Egos In A Small Car podcast double act Chalmers & Hutch decide in Episode 48.
Plus what’s happening to Peter Jackson’s Beatles biopic Get Back? Festival overload: is it Glastonbury or Glastonborey?
Carole King’s Tapestry takes on Joni Mitchell’s Blue in a 50th anniversary tussle. The Magic Christian revisited, Ringo Starr et al. Hurry, hurry, to see Cecil Beaton’s gilded photographic days in Sheffield Millennium Gallery exhibition.
Moth of the day: Peppered Moth, Sarah Gillespie’s latest and largest mezzotint, 2ft by 3ft in size, completed in February and now being exhibiting for the first time at Castle Howard
MOTHS have a bad press and basically The Bible is to blame.
Or so says mezzotint artist and moth crusader Sarah Gillespie, whose remarkable exhibition can be discovered by day at Castle Howard, near York, until September 5.
“It’s just for some reason, we are so ignorant about moths,” says Sarah, speaking during her residency at the Head Gardener’s Cottage in the walled Rose Garden.
Part of the Lepidoptera group of insects, meaning “scaly winged”, moths are “deeply unloved”, “grossly misunderstood” and dismissed as “pests”, in favour of the more colourful, daylight-dwelling butterfly, and yet moths are more numerous and more varied, as the exhibition publicity asserts.
“Moths are much more interesting than butterflies. They really are. Butterflies are so boring by comparison. Did you know, there are more diurnal flying moth species in the UK than butterflies?” says Sarah.
Sarah Gillespie at work on the meticulous, methodical mezzotint print-making process
Er, no, but anyway, back to that bad press/fake news about The Bible’s disparaging words. Moths flutter through the pages of The Great Book on no fewer than ten occasions, but none has had such a detrimental impact on the moth’s reputation as the Gospel according to St Matthew, chapter 6, verse 19: “Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal.”
“We associate moths with making holes in wool, but not one of the 2,500 species of larger moths does that. Moths don’t eat clothes. It’s only the larvae of one species of micro moth that does it. Some adult moths don’t even have mouth parts, and those that do tend to use them just for pollinating.”
The exhibition is the result of an ongoing project that, for the past two years, has seen Devon artist Sarah research, draw and engrave common English moths by way of highlighting their dramatic and devastating decline and celebrating their overwhelming importance.
Since 1914, it is believed that around 62 species of moths have become extinct in Britain alone. In the last 35 years, the overall number of moths here has fallen by around one third owing to habitat loss, intensive farming, commercial forestry and light pollution.
“If what I have been given [through making mezzotints of moths] is the ability to focus, to pay attention, and if there is even the remotest chance that in attending lies an antidote to our careless destruction, then that’s what I have to do – to focus,” says Sarah. “It’s not enough but it’s necessary.
White Ermine Moth, mezzotint, by Sarah Gillespie
“It’s just for some reason, we are so ignorant about moths. We think of them of them as nocturnal, as the butterflies of the night – the French call them ‘papillon de nuit’ – but many are diurnal.
“It doesn’t help that a lot of people were spooked by the moth in the poster for The Silence Of The Lambs [Jonathan Demme’s 1991 American psychological horror movie]. It’s called the Death’s-Head Hawkmoth because it has what looks like a skull on the back of its head.
“But, in fact, the Death’s Head Hawkmoth has nothing to do with death at all. It goes into beehives to eat honey and the bees happily let it in. It’s not parasitic; it doesn’t hurt the bees; it just takes their honey! The larvae eat potato crops.”
Apart from that, what did moths ever do for us, Sarah? “They’re pollinators. They’re re-cyclers. The reason their larvae eat your cashmere jumpers is to break down animal hair. They evolved to be part of that entropy. Otherwise, we would be drowning in animal hair,” she says.
“They’re a crucial part of the food chain too. Bats eat them on the wing, but we’re seeing a drop in bat numbers over farmland because farmers use pesticides to get rid of moths.”
The infamous poster for The Silence Of The Lambs with a Death’s-Head Hawkmoth covering Jodie Foster’s lips
Anything else? “The UK’s Blue Tit population needs 35 billion moth caterpillars a year to eat. They time the hatching of their chicks for when the caterpillars are around,” Sarah highlights.
“If you wonder why we no longer hear cuckoos like we used to…cuckoos had adapted to eat the hairy caterpillars of the Tiger Moth, but Tiger Moths are down in number by 83 per cent over the past 30 years because of pesticides.
“We tend to think of moths in their adult form but they’re in a cycle and because that’s entangled with other species, they’re the canary in the coal mine in this country, being so entangled with biodiversity and ecosystems.
“The RSPB brought out a report in May that said we are the worst country in the G7 at looking after at our biodiversity. We have only 50 per cent of diversity left. Moths are a huge part of that decay, being a vital part of the food chain and pollinators – and yet we’re afraid of them.
“It’s a depressing story, and no-one wants a depressing story right now, but we do just about have time to turn it around.”
Artist Sarah Gillespie with a moth trap. As if sitting for a portrait, moths may remain still when Sarah draws them
Hence Sarah’s work seeks to “draw attention to this catastrophic collapse while tenderly celebrating moths’ unseen nocturnal lives, exquisite diversity and the poetry of their common English names”.
The resulting Moth exhibition features all 22 of her mezzotints as well as a new work, her largest mezzotint to date. Measuring a monumental 2ft by 3ft, Peppered Moth marks a stark change to a process normally measured in inches and not feet.
Her use of mezzotint – a labour-intensive tonal engraving technique used widely between the 17th and early 19th century – is key in rendering the nocturnal quality of both the subject matter and the works themselves.
Only through repeated careful and gradual scraping and polishing of the copper mezzotint plate are these soft gradations of tone and rich and velvety blacks revealed. At times presenting themselves in all their astounding detail and at others disappearing altogether, Sarah’s moths hum quietly, a gentle reminder of what may disappear permanently.
“I originally trained in Paris in 16th and 17th century methods of oil painting, and right from the beginning of my art career, I’ve had an interest in old, or arcane, techniques,” she says.
Printing the mezzotint of a Garden Tiger Moth
“When I went to the Ruskin [School of Art] in Oxford, I preferred the print room to the art studio and that’s where I did my first mezzotints, but it’s a technique that’s not taught in art schools because it’s too slow – you have to rock the plate in 64 different directions! – and it takes too long for the way art is taught now.
“I always painted and drew as well, but the reason I chose mezzotints for the moths is that with mezzotints, the image is drawn out of the darkness. You scrape and burnish the copper plates to create the lights and half-lights, and that seemed to speak to me very well of moths, as we only half see them: they are half here, half not here.”
A further reason coloured her decision to favour mezzotints. “I’m more comfortable with form and pattern than I am with colour, and we think that moths see in the blue-green spectrum, so I went with the blue spectrum for the prints,” says Sarah.
“If you look at form and pattern, rather than colour, sometimes it has more emotional resonance in monochrome. It’s the same with the impact of black-and-white photographs.”
Such is the meticulous detail in Sarah’s mezzotint prints that it is easy to mistake them for photographs. Not so, there is a reason why a photograph is also known as a “snap”, whereas Sarah’s works of art take weeks, even months.
Sarah Gillespie’s sketch of a Poplar Hawk-moth
“At no point is it a photographic process; it’s a hand-drawn and hand-engraved process. Smaller mezzotints take two weeks to create; the 2ft by 3ft Peppered Moth took three months, just to make the plate,” she says. “Then you spend a week printing the plates.
“The conventional size is five inches by seven inches, and it’s not until now that I’ve done such a big one [Peppered Moth] because I had this idea that I didn’t want to spook people even more when they’re already spooked by moths!”
The creation of the Peppered Moth mezzotint is of particular relevance to Castle Howard, whose landscaped gardens provide the ideal location for its own large and varied moth population.
During the Industrial Revolution in the 19th century, the species experienced a rapid evolutionary mutation, causing it to turn black.
The Peppered Moth’s unusual colour change saw it darken in response to its habitat that became increasingly polluted and soot covered, allowing it to camouflage and escape predators.
Ye, mezzoting, by Sarah Gillespie
It was in industrial Yorkshire cities, close to Castle Howard, that this melatonic phenomenon was observed in 1848, a full ten years ahead of Charles Darwin’s theories on natural selection. “In Sheffield, for example, they were seen hanging out on birch trees, the moths now completely black,” says Sarah. “And they did that change so very quickly.”
Come the introduction of clean air laws in the 1960s, however, the previous speckled variety returned.
“Camouflage is massively important for moths; they’ve been in an evolutionary race with bats and likewise their caterpillars with plants,” says Sarah. “There are moths that look like bark, bird poo, lichen, leaves.
“They have several defences they use: camouflage and warning signs to scare off birds, such as flashing their colours as a second line of defence, or pretending to drop dead or even making noises to ward off bats.”
Finished in February, the Peppered Moth is now the focal point for the Moth exhibition, not only for its sheer size but to reflect the tenacity of these creatures and the geographical ties to Castle Howard behind this particular species’ fascinating evolutionary story.
“At no point is it a photographic process; it’s a hand-drawn and hand-engraved process,” says Sarah Gillespie
Why is Sarah drawn to moths like moths to a flame? “I started doing the mezzotints a few years ago when I was in one of those stages of being disillusioned with the art world as I was finding it narcissistic,” she says, starting out on an answer by a country route. “We are narcissistic as a species and the art world reflected that.
“Though I have many friends in the art world, I was ready for a change. Extinction Rebellion started, and while I wasn’t part of it, many friends were. I don’t like crowds; I like being in the country [she lives near Dartmouth], but I felt artists needed to respond to the biodiversity crisis.
“That’s why I decided to focus on a project rooted in biodiversity, and though this might sound wacky, the moths just offered themselves as a subject.”
How come? “I read Michael McCarthy’s book The Moth Snowstorm: Nature And Joy about the abundance of moths or, rather, lack of abundance, and it was a case of things eliding,” says Sarah, who was delighted that McCarthy subsequently came to Castle Howard on June 5 to give a talk.
“You don’t get as much to choose from as an artist as you might think, but sometimes a subject chooses you, and as soon as I started drawing moths, much more interesting things started happening for me.”
Common Quaker, mezzotint, by Sarah Gillespie
Such as? “My moth mezzotints are now in collections in America and they’ve been exhibited in Katharinaberg in 2019, Shanghai, and now Castle Howard. So, these invitations keep coming and doors keep opening; it does just feel a little like Alice In Wonderland. Coming up next is Hiroshima in the autumn.”
Will Sarah go to Japan? “No, the sky is for the moths and the birds. I don’t really like flying,” she says.
While living onsite as part of her month-long artist’s residency, Sarah has been awaking early to study Castle Howard’s moth population with a view to producing new works in response, including one created publicly during visiting hours.
Visitors have been able to watch her demonstrate the process that goes into making and printing her mezzotints. In addition, she has held a weekly online live streamed event wherein Sarah releases moths caught humanely overnight within Castle Howard’s grounds.
In her temporary workspace alongside the exhibition, Sarah has set up a printing press, courtesy of a York company. “Initially I borrowed a press from a friend, but it wasn’t suitable for mezzotints as you have to apply a lot of pressure,” she says.
“I decided to focus on a project rooted in biodiversity, and though this might sound wacky, the moths just offered themselves as a subject,” says Sarah. Picture: Kate Mount
“But once I put a request on Instagram, within 12 hours I’d received five suggestions, one advising I should contact Hawthorn Printmaker supplies in Murton. I rang at 9am and by 3pm they’d installed it – for free!”
She has loved her residency: “Nick and Vicki Howard have put me in a Vanbrugh-designed cottage in a walled garden, and I feel very lucky. They keep asking me if I’m comfortable and I just roar with laughter!” she says.
Sarah headed north with one other goal. “Castle Howard has sublime lime tree avenues and I hope to locate a Lime Hawk-moth, which is restricted to such trees,” she said on arrival. “Yorkshire is on the tip of their northernmost territories but I’m hopeful.”
Has she been successful? Maybe we shall learn the answer when Sarah returns to Castle Howard in August to appear on BBC1’s Countryfile.
Sarah Gillespie: Moth runs at Castle Howard until September 5. Entry to the exhibition is via the Stable Courtyard and is free of charge; a gardens ticket is not required.
Pale Emerald, mezzotint, by Sarah Gillespie
A REVISED second edition of Sarah’s book Moth is available to buy at £45 from Castle Howard’s gift shop and directly from Sarah’s website at sarahgillespie.co.uk/editions/moth/.
The new hardback features three additional moth prints and an introduction by author and naturalist Mark Cocker, alongside a specially gifted poem by Alice Oswald.
“Common” English Moth Names To Love
1. Dingy Footman
2. Chimney Sweeper
3. Coxcomb
4. Non-conformist [So non-comformist that it is now extinct, alas]
5. Small Fan-footed Wave
6. Pale Brindled Beauty
7. Smoky Wainscot
Setaceous Hebrew Character, mezzotint, by Sarah Gillespie . Note the bristly appearance
8. Double-Striped Pug
9. Feathered Gothic
10. Scalloped Oak
11. Setaceous Hebrew Character [‘Setaceous’ means bristly]
12. Garden Grass-veneer
P.S. Micro-moths tend not to have English names, graced only with their Latin name tags. “The English names for moths are our heritage, whereas a lot of the Latin ones are just random,” says Sarah.
In the name of love Moth Fact of the Day:
Moths make noises as a mating call and males can catch pheromones from females kilometres away.
Just One More Thing in defence of moths…
NOVAVAX, the United States-based pharmaceutical company, has used moth cells to create its Covid-19 vaccine.
One of Ian Cameron’s paintings, on show in his back garden in Green Lane, Acomb
ARTISTS are entering the last week of preparations for the 20th edition of York Open Studios.
After the Covid-enforced fallow year in 2020, the event will return for two weekends of welcoming visitors to 95 studios, workspaces and homes on July 10, 11, 17 and 18, preceded by a preview evening on July 9.
As many as 146 artists and makers will be showing and selling their work in this high-summer opportunity for art lovers and the curious to enjoy the fresh air, meet the artists and view and buy unique arts and crafts from York’s artisans.
Ceramicist Pietro Sanna, making his York Open Studios debut in Dale Street, York
2021’s York Open Studios will celebrate originality and diversity and will be Covid-compliant, with artists adhering to Government guidelines on social distancing, ventilation and sanitisers, keeping themselves and visitors safe throughout.
The York Open Studios organisers are thrilled with the selection of artists and makers spanning ceramics, collage, digital art, illustration, jewellery, mixed media, painting, print-making , photography, sculpture, textiles and wood. Among them will be 43 new participants.
Committee member and featured ceramicist Beccy Ridsdel says: “After last year’s postponement, we think this year’s 20th show is one of the best. Our decision to move from April to July this year has given us the opportunity for the stricter Covid guidelines [before Step 3] to be relaxed and give the public more confidence when visiting artists’ studios.
“We think this year’s 20th show is one of the best,” says ceramicist and committee member Becky Ridsdel, who will welcome visitors to her South Cottages studio in Shipton Road, York
“Artists and makers bring a diverse range of skills to the weekends, producing bespoke ceramics, furniture, glass, jewellery, painting, photography, printmaking, sculpture, textiles, wood carving and multi-media.
“There’s something for everyone and every pocket. The artists also love to showcase their work within their surroundings and really value the interaction, whether you’re a buyer or a burgeoning artist. It’s a fabulous way too to enjoy York and view extraordinary work.”
Geometric pattern block lino-print postcards, by mixed-media artist Harriette Rymer, on show at 94, The Village, Haxby
The 95 locations will be highlighted on a map of York to help visitors navigate their way to as many studios, workshops and homes as they wish.
Visit yorkopenstudios.co.uk for more information and for a free York Open Studios map. Alternatively, the map can be picked up from Visit York, on Lendal, or in shops, restaurants and visitor attractions around the city.
For full information on the artists and their studios, examples of their work and opening hours, visit: yorkopenstudios.co.uk.
Rug weaver Jacqueline James with her loom at home in Rosslyn Street, Clifton
Shock of the new: Milton Jones looks startled at the prospect of replacing Ed Byrne at short notice for tonight’s comedy bill at York Theatre Royal
AWAY from all that football, Charles Hutchinson finds plenty of cause for cheer beyond chasing an inflated pig’s bladder, from a late-change comedy bill to Ayckbourn on film, York artists to a park bench premiere.
Late substitution of the week: Byrne out, Jones in, for Live At The Theatre Royal comedy night, York Theatre Royal, tonight, 7.30pm
ED Byrne will not top the Live At The Theatre Royal comedy bill tonight after all. “We are sorry to announce that due to circumstances beyond our control, Ed is now unable to appear,” says the official statement.
The whimsical Irish comedian subsequently has tweeted his “You Need To Self-Isolate” notification, running until 23.59pm on July 7.
Well equipped to take over at short notice is the quip-witted pun-slinger Milton Jones, joining Rhys James, Maisie Adam and host Arthur Smith. Box office: 01904 623568 or at yorktheatreroyal.co.uk.
Naomi Petersen and Bill Champion in Alan Ayckbourn’s The Girl Next Door at the SJT and now on film too. Picture: Tony Bartholomew
“Film of the week”: Alan Ayckburn’s The Girl Next Door, from Stephen Joseph Theatre, Scarborough, until Sunday
THE SJT’s film of Alan Ayckbourn’s latest premiere, The Girl Next Door, is available on the Scarborough theatre’s website, sjt.uk.com.
Directed by Ayckbourn, his 85th play can be seen on stage in The Round until Saturday and now in a filmed recording in front of a live audience until midnight on Sunday.
One day in 2020 lockdown, veteran actor Rob spots a stranger hanging out the washing in the adjoining garden, but his neighbours have not been around for months. Who is the mysterious girl next door? And why is she wearing 1940s’ clothing?
Ray of sunshine: Edwin Ray as Tick/Mitzi in Priscilla Queen Of The Desert at Leeds Grand Theatre. Picture: Darren Bell
Musical of the week ahead: Priscilla Queen Of The Desert, Leeds Grand Theatre, July 6 to 10
PRISCILLA Queen Of The Desert returns to Leeds for seven socially distanced performances in a new production produced by Mark Goucher and, for the first time, Jason Donovan, star of the original West End show and two UK tours.
Loaded up with glorious costumes, fabulous feathers and dance-floor classics, three friends hop aboard a battered old bus bound for Alice Springs to put on the show of a lifetime.
Miles Western plays Bernadette, Nick Hayes, Adam/Felicia and Edwin Ray, Tick/Mitzi, in this heart-warming story of self-discovery, sassiness and acceptance. Box office: 0113 243 0808 or at leedsgrandtheatre.com.
Solo show: Polymath Phil Grainger puts his songwriting in the spotlight in his Clive concert in Stillington
Gig of the week outside York: Clive, alias Phil Grainger, At The Mill, Stillington, near York, tomorrow, 7.30pm
CLIVE is the solo music project of Easingwold singer, songwriter, musician, sound engineer, magician, actor, Gobbledigook Theatre director and event promoter Phil Grainger.
As the voice and the soul behind Orpheus, Eurydice and The Gods The Gods The Gods, Clive finds the globe-trotting Grainger back home, turning his hand to a song-writing project marked by soaring vocal and soulful musicianship. Expect a magical evening wending through new work and old classics in two sets, one acoustic, the other electric. Box office: tickettailor.com/events/atthemill/512182.
Emily Hansen’s Pilgrim 14 as Mary Magdalene in a rehearsal for A Resurrection For York at Dean’s Park. Picture: John Saunders
Open-air theatre event of the weekend: A Resurrection For York, Residents Garden, Minster Library, Dean’s Park, York, Saturday and Sunday, 11am, 2pm, 4pm
THE wagons are in place for A Resurrection For York, presented by York Mystery Plays Supporters Trust, York Festival Trust and York Minster.
Philip Parr, artistic director of Parrabbola, directs a community cast in an hour-long outdoor performance, scripted by Parr and 2018 York Mystery Plays director Tom Straszewski from the York Mystery Plays cycle of the crucifixion and the events that followed. Tickets are on sale at ticketsource.co.uk/whats-on/york/residents-garden-deans-park/a-resurrection-for-york/.
Autonomous, by Sharon McDonagh, from the Momentum Summer Show at Blossom Street Gallery, York
Exhibition of the week and beyond: Momentum Summer Show, Westside Artists, Blossom Street Gallery, by Micklegate Bar, York, until September 26
YORK art group Westside Artists, a coterie of artists from the city’s Holgate and West areas, are exhibiting paintings, portraits, photomontage, photography, metalwork, textiles, ceramics and mixed-media art at Blossom Street Gallery.
Taking part are Adele Karmazyn; Carolyn Coles; Donna Maria Taylor; Ealish Wilson; Fran Brammer; Jane Dignum; Jill Tattersall; Kate Akrill and Lucy McElroy. So too are Lucie Wake; Marc Godfrey-Murphy; Mark Druery; Michelle Hughes; Rich Rhodes; Robin Grover-Jaques, Sharon McDonagh and Simon Palmour.
The Park Keeper director Matt Aston, left, actor Sean McKenzie and writer Mike Kenny at Rowntree Park, York. Picture: Northedge Photography
Theatre premiere of the week ahead: Park Bench Theatre in The Park Keeper, The Friends’ Garden, Rowntree Park, York, July 7 to 17 (except July 11)
AFTER last summer’s trilogy of solo shows, Matt Aston’s Park Bench Theatre return to Rowntree Park with Olivier Award-winning York writer Mike Kenny’s new monologue to mark the park’s centenary.
Performed by Sean McKenzie, The Park Keeper is set in York in the summer of 1945, when Rowntree Park’s first, and so far only, park keeper, ‘Parky’ Bell, is about to retire. That can mean only one thing, a speech, but what can he say? How can he close this chapter on his life? Will he be able to lock the gates to his kingdom one last time? Box office: 01904 623568, at yorktheatreroyal.co.uk or via parkbenchtheatre.com.
Andy Fairweather Low: Booked into Pocklington Arts Centre for next February
Gig announcement of the week outside York: Andy Fairweather Low, Pocklington Arts Centre, February 11 2022
ANDY Fairweather Low, the veteran Welsh guitarist, songwriter, vocalist and producer, will return to Pocklington next February.
Founder and cornerstone of Sixties’ hitmakers Amen Corner and later part of Eric Clapton and Roger Waters’ bands, Cardiff-born Fairweather Low, 72, will perform with The Low Riders: drummer Paul Beavis, bassist Dave Bronze and saxophonist Nick Pentelow. Box office: pocklingtonartscentre.co.uk.
Jane McDonald: Lighting up York Barbican in July 2022 rather than July 4 this summer
Rearranged gig announcement of the week in York: Jane McDonald, York Barbican, July 22 2022
WAKEFIELD cabaret singer and television personality Jane McDonald’s Let The Light In show is on the move to next summer.
For so long booked in as the chance to “Get The Lights Back On” at York Barbican on July 4, the Government’s postponement of “Freedom Day” from June 21 to July 19 at the earliest has enforced the date change for a show first booked in for 2020. Tickets remain valid; box office: yorkbarbican.co.uk.
