It is such a privilege to be part of the forthcoming Exhibition ‘A Yorkshire Year’ to be held at Nunnington Hall in the heart of the North York Moors between 14 September and 15 December 2024.
The Exhibition will feature work by both myself and by good friend and fellow Unison Colour Associate Artist, Robert Dutton, and will showcase the distinctive landscapes of Yorkshire across the seasons. I have known Rob for over 20 years and we have worked together many times (as evidenced by previous Unison Colour blogs!). We both love working outside in the landscape using the immediacy of pastels to full effect. We both also enjoy the expressive energy that can be created by combining our favourite Unison Colour pastels with other media. So our work, and the Exhibition, will be both diverse yet complimentary. It is a real honour for me to be exhibiting alongside Rob who I consider to be one of the country’s foremost landscape artists and an inspiration not only to me but to his many collectors and art students.
The process of creating the Exhibition has been both fascinating and exhilarating. It was more than a year ago that the concept of work featuring the Yorkshire region was accepted by Laura Kennedy, the curator of the gallery space at Nunnington Hall. The Hall is a National Trust property with a fascinating history and beautiful compact gardens. Laura has helped to build a unique reputation for the Hall holding varied art and photographic Exhibitions that have a quality and meaning that accords with the Trust’s principles and the Yorkshire region.
Rob and I have both worked across the breadth of the region over the year to create distinctive paintings that capture what makes the region so special to us. We have been accompanied on various of these trips by Tony Parkin, a film maker with T.P Visuals, filming us to create a promotional feature for the Exhibition. It has been great fun to feel the creative juices of both artist and film maker working in tandem. I think I’ve at last got used to working away with my pastels while one of Tony’s drones hovers over my head!
Working with Laura, we have created text to be featured alongside our paintings, which explains our respective likes (and dislikes) of the Seasons and what they mean to us both artistically. For example, I’ve explained how Autumn and Winter were always difficult seasons for me; the end of hot summer days and the start of shortening light time hours and a move towards my working day starting and ending in darkness. That was when my day job was as a lawyer, but since becoming a full time artist I can now appreciate the opportunities that both seasons bring to us artists, be it the glorious colours of Autumn or a low Winter sun casting a warm glow over fresh snow. Even a rainy day doesn’t now hold me back – my trusty clear view umbrella allows me to hold and paint with my pastels in one hand while holding the umbrella with the other!
It is of course unusual these days to see an Exhibition that features and promotes the art of the soft pastel and specifically, (as they are of course our favourites), Unison Colour pastels! It is a wonderful opportunity to showcase why we all love Unison Colour pastels so much. And how nice it is to be able to do so in such an historic setting and to be able to feature our favourite paintings of Yorkshire. If you live in or are visiting the Yorkshire region I do hope you will be able to come and see it.
Get Robert’s perspective, in the first part to this blog, at the link below…
A Yorkshire Year: Part I
Working alongside artists who respect your creative vision and in return who’s work you admire can create something magical to organise together.
1 response
Looking forward to visiting your exhibition!