Everybody who knows me, knows that I love walking… it has always meant a great deal to me, but this year of all years, I honestly think that it’s the thing that has kept me going! I’m so lucky to live in an area where there are nice walks to be had close by and straight from home too….I’ve kept a photographic record of my walks this year and put a few from each month together in an IGTV video: ‘Year of Walks: 2020’…follow the social link to my Instagram page to see more!

This year has also taught me that my practice of keeping notes and colour swatches and taking photographs, making studies and sketches is really crucial. It’s given me the material to keep working even in the worst of the first lockdown. I’ve been able to ‘re-visit’ favourite places in Cornwall for instance, without leaving home and to develop and continue a series of work, that has been brewing in my head for nearly three years. I’ve balanced this with making work based around the beautiful landscape of North Yorkshire where I live.

Earlier this year I started some work based on some of these local walks; this time around Staveley Carr wetlands…I walk there several times a week, so I know it really well, and notice small changes in the landscape because it is so very familiar. The painting below is one of this series, which has just gone off to a lovely new client from Bils and Rye Gallery.

I had been itching to make a larger Staveley Carr painting, and this change of light and colour proved the ideal starting point…I had noticed how all the colours were softened, ‘greyed’ if you like but with some surprising warmth behind them, and wanted to try to capture something of this on a new, 122 x 92 cm canvas.

In the image above, you can see the first 3 or 4 layers, which are applied really loosely, just to knock back the white of the primed canvas, establish the basic feel of the composition and also help me to think through how I want the rhythm of colour and tone to work across the piece. The looseness and intuitive nature of the brush marks, actually provide a guide for later layers; they show through and add subtle movement and character as the picture develops.

You can see by comparing the images, how the depth of colour and tone have developed by adding multiple further layers, all translucent…this obviously gives a softness and suggests a diffuse light….The foreground layers here are more advanced than the mid and background, which I wanted to soften further. By doing this, I would be able to add to the sense of depth and scale, and create a feeling of receding layers.

In the finished image below, you can see how the mid and background areas sit back, and emphasise space ….Although I had no intention of this being a realistic painting; it is absolutely abstracted and quietly expressive, I still wanted to create that sense of depth which this suggests.

The completed painting above, is deliberately harmonious, I really wanted to suggest the stillness, the quiet of a very early morning walk when even the birds were still, and the whole place was deserted…

Tonal contrasts are also soft and gentle, with stronger tones muted by glazed overlays…details of pontoons, trees and reeds are implied, but not too specific.

‘Hope you like it! For further information and to purchase, please send me an email or use the button on my Contact page.

* I started writing this blog once a month in January, expecting to be talking mainly about all the planned exhibitions and shows I had in the diary! Well that all changed didn’t it!! Literally every show and exhibition was cancelled, but I am incredibly grateful that loads of lovely people have continued to buy art direct from artists, and that we were able to run North Yorkshire Open Studios as an online event. I’m also delighted to have had an actual exhibition at the very smart Bils and Rye gallery, with lovely sales, despite a return to lockdown and restrictions during the run!

So it has been a really difficult year for everyone, and we are definitely not out of the woods yet, and I wanted to say how much I appreciate all the lovely emails and feedback I’ve had about my work and specifically about these newsletters. I didn’t think anyone would read them to be honest, but thought it would be a good discipline to write something each month, so I’ve been blown away by the response!

I will definitely be carrying on in 2021, thanks to all your encouragement and by way of a little thank you, I’m going to have a free prize draw for all my newsletter subscribers next month, so if you’re reading this and haven’t yet subscribed…..well you know what to do!

My newsletter is out a little earlier in the month than usual, as I’m intending to have a few days off around Christmas, not least because it’s the time of year I start planning new work, and thinking about what I want to focus on and develop next year.

That’s about it for this month and this year, so I’m wishing you a really safe, healthy and as happy as possible in the circumstances, Christmas and New Year!

Keep in touch and carry on reading next month…

Take care, Jo x

*All text and images copyright Jo York 2020