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

A visit from the farrier

Walter, who lives in Coachman's cottage had four of his horses re-shod this week so it gave me the opportunity to make a little drawing! - 'Farrier' charcoal and ink on paper 1050mm x 950mm

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.