Newsletter: March 2023
Click the arrow above to listen to the Audio version of my Newsletter, and apologies that Siri randomly decided to kick in part way through!
March started unexpectedly, with a quick trip to Valletta, in Malta…it happened very suddenly, with not much chance for anticipation, but was absolutely lovely; mainly because it was a brilliant chance to catch up with family! It was also a massive blast from the past, which is a bit of a theme this month as you will see.
I probably should explain; when I was a child, I had an eccentric Aunt who taught in Valletta, and so we used to go out and stay with her. It was strange being back in Malta, loads of half remembered places, names and scenery-the urban sprawl across the centre of the island is now massive, and too many of the pretty seaside places have suffered from really insensitive development…However Valletta is still beautiful and fascinating, and some more recent architecture is exciting and works really well with the massive city walls.
I love the textures of Valletta’s narrow streets, and especially the fragments of old signage, bleached by sun and wind. I also really love the new parliament building by architect Renzo Piano, which echoes the monumental shapes of the ancient buildings and fortifications.
By way of contrast we came back to thick snow in Nidderdale, proper deep snow like you get in the Alps; crisp, sugary and crunchy!
Last month I was talking about a little group of paintings inspired by the colours and shapes in an early morning sky. They were all at different stages; some nearly there and some a long way off…I think they are probably all done now, apart from some sealing, varnishing and tidying of edges. After the original more opaque layers, they’ve all had loads of layers of glazes to build depth of colour and richness.
I’ll be releasing them soon, with first access to my lovely subscribers!
March has been pretty busy actually, I also spent time prepping materials for a new course I was running at The Lund Studios, just outside Easingwold, not too far away from me. The Lund is a studio/ workshop and gallery space on the family farm owned by artist Debbie Loane. It is a beautiful space, and a perfect place to run creative courses, managed by Debbie’s partner Steve Pomfret who also makes the lovely cakes and lunches!
After a long gap because of Covid and house and studio moves, it was so good to be back teaching in person, and particularly working with such a great bunch of artists-in fact I can’t wait to be back at The Lund in the Autumn! The most amazing thing about the day though was that I finally met up again with two of my students from 30 years ago…at the time I was Head of Art in a school and they were a couple of lovely talented sixth formers, with just the most special friendship. Thirty plus years on, they are just the same, full of passion and enthusiasm, laughter and fun, and seeing them again was genuinely pure joy! I even got to work with one of their daughters, who was an absolute delight.
You might wonder why I’m telling you this, and the reason is just to say what an absolutely massive privilege it is to teach- teaching has been a thread that has run deep in my life, and something that means an enormous amount to me. Whilst I’m super happy to be able to focus on making my own work now, I would never want to stop teaching altogether. Anyway it was such a great day and many happy tears were shed!!
It’s also worth adding that whilst I am super frustrated by all the weird messages from ‘surgeons’ and ‘senior army officers’, and NFT scams which seem to turn up daily, social media does have a huge up-side, which is being able to connect with artists from across the world, in the most supportive community and re-connecting with former students like this lovely pair and loads more besides! Being able to follow their careers, see where they’re now working, and keep in touch is truly a wonderful thing, that would have been pretty much impossible before social media.
*I know a lot of you were disappointed as this course filled up so fast, so make a note in your diaries, the next one I’m doing is on the 7th October. I will also email my subscribers when it goes live on The Lund website: https://www.the-lund.co.uk
Now I’ve finished the little group of sunrise abstracts, I’m starting to play with ideas for new work. I’m not sure where that’s going yet, so I’m busy making swatches, loose studies, and generally thinking!
Studio Tip:
Some of you might remember that when I moved into my new studio ( pretty much exactly a year ago), I experimented with creating painting space by fixing two easels side by side on the wall. This might sound crazy, but the thinking behind it was because my space is now narrow and floor space is limited. This worked, as I could be getting on with two paintings side by side or have one large piece across the two easels…but it was a bit inflexible so I now have a much better solution.
Having playing with ideas of putting battens on the wall, or just carefully positioned screws, I’ve come up with a peg board for my painting wall. I’m not claiming this is a new idea, as I think loads of people have probably done this before, but I thought it might be worth explaining how it works. The board itself is made of Marine Ply( much better than MDF as it has a more durable finish and is wipeable) and is about 2cm thick, which allows for a good depth of pegs. Mine is 1.5 metres by about 1.2m, which is pretty much governed by the space I have available, but with this system I can work on paintings that are a little larger than the board, which is fine for the sizes I work with.
I got a local carpenter to router holes at 10cm intervals across the board- we could have done it, but I wanted them to be accurate and above all straight, so it was definitely worth paying someone to do this. The pegs are made of dowel cut into approx: 6cm lengths. So far I am thrilled with the system as it is so flexible, not just for painting, but also checking work and photographing it too. I can get a group of about 6 small ones on the board or one large and a couple of small, so it’s ideal for working on a group at a time. I can also masking tape paper onto it if I want to paint on large sheets or indeed un-stretched canvas. It will get painty over time, but I figure I can rub it down when I need to…the wall doesn’t seem to suffer as the depth of the board means paint drips onto the floor instead, where I can have a strategically placed dust sheet or bit of old plastic sheeting..
I have a mix of dowels and wedges. I made about 25 dowels, which seems about right for the size of board/ number of paintings and I have a bunch of off-cuts made into wedges which the carpenter kindly made me. These work to knock in next to a painting when the hole doesn’t come in quite the right place. I tend to work on deep canvases which actually hang from a couple of dowels really securely with an extra one at the bottom if needed. Thinner canvases or canvas panels sit really well on a couple of dowels at the bottom with wedges and or pegs on the top or side as needed.
I will update when I’ve been using it for a decent length of time, but so far, I’m really pleased with how practical and flexible it is. The 10 cm hole gap suits my work, but you could easily vary this. Let me know if you do something similar!
Oh and while I remember, I have some brand new collectable artist cards, available exclusively from my website. They are in a set of three beautifully presented cards, blank inside so great for any message and occasion…they are 15cm square and they come with a matching white envelope, in a clear protective sleeve. The special thing though is that they are only produced in small editions, as the next batch will be of different designs, so they really are collectable and absolutely perfect for dropping into small frames.
As always, I love receiving your comments and feedback, and do let me have ideas for things you would like me to cover.
For the first time last month, I made an audio to listen to alongside the newsletter, and was surprised by how many people really liked having something to listen to whilst they did other things or looked at the images etc…so I’m persevering with the idea, and I hope you like it!
Meantime, take good care and see you next month,
Jo xx
All text, images and artwork copyright ©️Jo York 2023