In 1982 I moved from a town in Norfolk to rural Cumbria and, back then, most people working in the Eden Valley, Cumbria were  involved in some way with farming.

Working within the constraints of a theme such as 'People at Work' can, ironically, give the artist a freedom.   You wake up in the morning knowing what you are doing and you get on with it.   So, I chose to look at Hill Farming.   The environment in which hill farming takes place includes farm labour, but also of course, the landscape and animals.

Tornado

Purchased in 1987 by Tullie House Museum and Art Gallery, Carlisle, Cumbria.    Apropos of nothing . . . four years after making this painting two tornado aircraft collided head-on over my village . . . in the exact same spot that the tornado appears here. Sadly all four pilots were killed.

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Shearers

This edition is sold out. A smaller reproduction of this image, unsigned and uneditioned, is available. Go to ‘WORK’ and then to ‘Reproductions’ and on to ‘colour images - Landscape and Farming etc.’

An edition of 100 with 10 artist's proofs. Commissioned by the Gulbenkian Foundation in 1984 and printed in 8 colours, signed and numbered in 1985 at Lowick House Print Workshop on John Purcell 285gsm mould-made 100% rag paper.

£440.00

Jarrod and the Bastle House

Jarrod appears in this painting a dozen times and is engaged in various farming activities. The building behind him is also ephemeral with the distant fellside showing through. . . as though we are looking back to a period before the building was erected in the 17th century. A bastle house is a semi-fortified construction built to protect it's occupants from the marauding Scots. Animals would be kept downstairs and this would make things warmer for people living upstairs.

Collection: Lakeland Arts, Cumbria

 

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Tumble

I like to draw and paint those ordinary things and activities that I am most familiar with . . . but my subject is usually chosen because, at a deeper level, there is something within it that feels vital to me. In retrospect I see a painting like 'Tumble', which depicts about twenty sheep huddled precariously together, to be a private metaphor for the fears and anxieties I was experiencing back in the early 1990's.

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Yoke

This edition is sold out. A smaller reproduction of this image, unsigned and uneditioned, is available. Go to WORK and then to ‘Reproductions’ and on to ‘colour images - Lanscape and Farming etc.’

An edition of 200 with 20 artist's proofs. Printed in 7 colours, signed and numbered by the artist in 1989 at Lowick House Print Workshop, Cumbria, UK on John Purcell 285gsm mould-made 100% rag paper. 

£400.00

Marking

This edition is sold out. A smaller reproduction of this image, unsigned and uneditioned, is now available. Go to ‘WORK’ and then to ‘Reproductions’ and on to ‘colour images - Landscape and Farming etc.’

An edition of 100 with 10 artist's proofs. Printed in black with hand drawing in red, signed and numbered by the artist in 1986 at Lowick House Print Workshop, Cumbria, UK on John Purcell 285gsm mould-made 100% rag paper. 

£300.00