New Studio at Norton Conyers

At the beginning of May this year I moved my studio from above David Stead Gallery in the tiny city of Ripon, North Yorkshire, Uk where I'd worked for 15 yrs, to a larger space in the beautiful late 18th century stable block at Norton Conyers House about four miles outside the city. The gallery in Ripon continues and we have a new gallery space in Harrogate too but for the time being, Norton Conyers is taking up my time and thoughts as I strive to get back to work and start making pictures after what seems a long hiatus. Owned by the delightfully eccentric Sir James and Lady Halina Graham, Norton Conyers is a late medieval manor house with Georgian additions and is said to be the inspiration behind Charlotte Bronte's Jane Eyre. Apparently Charlotte visited Norton Conyers in 1839 and learned of a legend of a mad woman locked in the attic. This later formed the basis of Bronte's Mrs Rochester character, who was similarly kept in confinement by her husband in the novel.
The house, gardens and indeed, my studio are open to visitors on selected weekends throughout the summer so you can come and explore for yourself.

Norton Conyers House

Stables

Fresh from the easel: Sound Of Mull

It has been a busy week in the studio; we're between teaching terms so I have more time for painting. New work has been started and others have been brought to completion, the largest of which is the one I'm working on above: 'Sound Of Mull' oil on canvas 100cm x 100cm. The picture was inspired by our recent return to that beautiful island. Below is the completed painting.

Daffodils

The daffodils are just starting at Norton Conyers heralding a new season. Check the web for details of opening times.

Clearing In Crow Wood

Here's a couple of pages taken from my sketchbook; they're drawings made in Crow Wood the other day when Giles and the girls were busy clearing and burning. In the first drawing a pan of sausages sizzles in the fire for our lunch.

On the easel

Just back from London; we visited Tate Modern, an exhibition space I've never much cared for and my feelings were confirmed: it seems all 'space' and shop and elevator and at the top of the elevator you might find some art. We did find art but it was relegated to a 'walk on' part in a thousand selfies - I watched people walk up to picassos, Kandinskys, Hirsts and Chapmans, take a photo and walk on! We left and went to the Clore to look at Turners. They were of course, dazzling and I was touched by his Self Portrait painted around 1799 when he would have been 24. On my return to Norton Conyers the portrait theme continues on my return thanks to some catalogues and exhibition invitations given to me by James and Halina and the discovery of an unfinished portrait of the photographer Michael Dunne. So that's the launch pad for the painting on the easel at the moment:

Winter colour at Norton Conyers

Painting Classes at Norton Conyers

Our new season of classes begin on WED' 25th JANUARY 2017  for a 'term' of six weeks, starting at 10 a.m. and running through 'til 4pm.

We will be focussing on the use of acrylic and oil paints with particular focus on the landscape.

Courses follow an 'atelier style' format of mentorship so that all standards and age ranges can be accommodated, from complete novice through to degree level, from student to retiree.

The course costs £30 per day. You will need to bring materials of your choice (Acrylic or oil and a drawing medium), warm clothing (we may be doing some work outside) and a packed lunch. We have tea and coffee making facilities & microwave.

December

Winter draws on: December and the temperature drops to minus 3. We have a burst pipe outside the studio so no water inside; this I can cope with but on teaching days I must have water so as soon as the pipe is fixed I build an insulated box to cover the exposed pipes; it's a temporary fix but hey!

Giles delivers more logs and the Jotul gobbles them like Mr Creosote with a 'waffer thin' after dinner mint so even in freezing temperatures I can still work relatively comfortably in the studio.

Morning and Evening

Minus three outside the studio this morning and the pipes were frozen but I soon had the Jotul blazing away and an early morning stroll had me spellbound by a couple of roe deer standing on the edge of the wood and for a moment, staring straight at me; then, levitating over the fence they bounded off over the South Lawn to the distant wood.

Evening Light

New Painting

New painting - 'Evening Cathedral, Ripon', mixed media on canvas 5ft x 5ft

And here I am working on it when it was to be a summer painting:

New painting

'White Horse & Belties', mixed media on canvas 100cm x 120cm

Norton Conyers Apple Chutney

The apple harvest at Norton Conyers has been huge this year and despite large quantities going into the making of Norton Conyers apple juice, they are still abundant so in order to help out a bit and despite not having a clue what I'm doing, I've decided to make some apple and sultana chutney. This, I discover, entails an inordinate amount of peeling and chopping; not only of apples but onions too and my......don't you need a big pot! My enthusiasm to get started means that I had failed to consider the subject of containers for all this chutney and half-way through the process I realise I'm going to need some jam-jars; but where to get them; and the recipe says 'cover as usual', what does that mean? I'm going to have to do some unexpected Googling and no doubt, another trip to the shops. This could turn out to be very expensive chutney!

The finished product.

Art Classes

The first students of the winter term arrived yesterday morning. It was nice to get back into teaching again though I have to remind myself every time that I DO enjoy it - every morning of a class, nerves kick in and I wonder why I’m there but as soon as I start, all is fine. Even the weather held out for us so we could start with some drawing outside. One brave soul even spent the whole day in the walled garden painting.

Winter Cometh

On the day that Trump becomes the 45th president of the United States, winter comes to Norton Conyers, both arrive on the scene with an unexpected bang - the former somewhat less welcome than the latter. Snow has fallen throughout the morning and in an effort to keep the studio at a workable temperature, I spend most of the time feeding logs into the wood-burner. By lunch-time, though the snow continues to fall, it’s clear that a thaw has set in: clumps of soft, wet snow flop from the trees and the sound of trickling water seeps music into the day. I pull on my wellies and head for the woods - I’ve been thinking of making an autumn woodland picture so I had a wander round with the camera yesterday to gather some ideas. The woods were full of spectacular colour from canopy to leaf littered floor and now I re-visit and see what overnight changes have occurred.  The changes wrought are subtle and delicate - a powdering of snow has filtered through the canopy and dusted the woodland floor and the sky has a steelier look to it but still the autumn holds on. Pheasants call throughout the wood, sometimes flushing from beneath my feet and a woodcock zips between the elephant’s legs of beech. On the way back to the studio I stop to watch the sun go down and as I stand a dog fox slides onto the track and stares me in the eyes. 

Autumn's Bounty

Autumn has arrived in a blaze of glory. The world looks and smells different, and strangely, it sounds different too: even though most of the leaves are still on the trees, somehow the acoustic has changed. Someone was shooting in the woods this morning and the echo reverberated for longer, but was softer. Perhaps it's just my imagination.

There are two cottages in the stable courtyard; one occupied by Walter, a horseman and milker of cows who sadly lost his wife a couple of months ago and the other by Stuart who I met for the first time today. He seemed shy and friendly; perhaps because of his news - his wife, coming out of hospital today has given birth to a baby boy. Stuart is strong, he works outside and his joy was gently evident. I spent the day working on two harvest paintings; one in oil, the other the big (5' x 5') mixed media of Ripon cathedral from Studley. I may post a picture tomorrow.

Woodburner

I saw it first in Giles's workshop: squat, bulldog legs and growling empty amongst tired tools.

A cast iron fire-dog fed on trees, it had coaxed fruit ripe in the greenhouses of Norton Conyers until supermarkets dazzled us with shinier, shapelier, taste-free options like fruity page three girls.

It is a Jotul 118; built in Norway and designed in the late 1930s by the artist Ørnulf Bast. It reminded me of the Bankdam-Crowther in J.L.Carr's 'A Month In The Country and like Carr's hero Tom Birkin, I'm looking forward to cajoling it to life and learning of its caprice and foible.

Perfectly timed for the recent drop in temperature (can't have an arctic artist), Dougie the sweep and son Paul arrived to infuse life back into the Norse fire-breather on Monday. In an effort to have as little impact on the fabric of the building as possible we'd intended to put the flue out through an already broken pane in the window. It soon became apparent however that we would have to make extensive alterations to the frame and louvres which appear to be original to the building so we ended up going straight up through the roof which has clearly been replaced in recent years and would, we felt, be the better option. The experts did the clever stuff, I replaced the broken glass in the window and all was finished in an afternoon.

So - here we go: for the first time in many years the Jotul 118 gets fire up:

It made for a lovely environment to work in Yesterday and we'll see how it copes as the autumn turns to winter.

Latest Painting:

'Fishing Boats, Scarborough', mixed media on canvas 100cm x 100cm.

Oft' maligned, Scarborough is one of my favourite seaside places: Mrs S. and I visit often and it always has something new to give. Yes it has something of the 'kiss me quick' culture, but the harbour that gave rise to this painting is as lovely as any in northern Europe and high above the harbour crouches the magnificent Scarborough castle with stupendous views of both the north and south bays, out to sea and inland to the moors. Just outside the castle walls is St Mary's church which is the final resting place of Anne Bronte who died at the tender age of 29. It seems she'd come to Scarborough for it's health giving air......Hmm!

Indian Summer

A beautiful autumn day with warm sunshine and a chill in the shade; Mrs S. and I wandered the garden and sat watching insect industry:

Apple Harvest

Giles and the girls have been busy with the apple harvest; they are making apple juice to sell in a pop-up shop in the spring; it means fewer apples for the wasps to enjoy but such is life.

The masher:

Shandy feigns interest

Hedge Cutting

I spent the day with Giles, cutting the huge yew hedges in the garden. I grew up part of a farming family and spent my early, and teenage years involved in agriculture so I'd been looking forward to a day of physical work but my.....these are big hedges and somehow I ended up doing the upper storey. It was a full day, up and down the ladder brandishing my, not so light, sabre and as the blisters on my hands ballooned the last few meters seemed to go on forever but it was finally finished (in record time according to Giles) and I did get an enormous sense of satisfaction from the day.

 Lunch with Giles and the garden girls in the orangery.