Workshop dates 2016-2017

Here are my new workshop dates of the coming academic year. You can find all details on my website at www.helenhallows.com or click here.

Back to School Week

It's back to school week here in Derbyshire which means one thing.....it's the Wirksworth Festival at the weekend! In Derbyshire we are good at making the summer last and this year I will be exhibiting at both the Wirksworth and the Melbourne Festivals.

I've had a good break over the summer (more to tell of that in other posts) and now the boys are back at school I am getting my wares ready for the weekend. There'll be special festival prices on prints and originals so come and see me at the Wild Cherry Bed and Breakfast up the very steep Greenhill. It's worth the walk as I will be exhibiting alongside Tracy Cuppitt and our host is a cafe stop for festival visitors. From up there the views are amazing, not too dissimilar to this....

Then it's a quick pitstop at home before the Melbourne Festival Art Trail on the 17th and 18th of September where I will be at 49 Church Street. Don't forget to buy your trail guide from one of the sellers in the village centre. Fingers crossed that the sun keeps shining! 

I look forward to seeing you!

Autumn Soul

On a grey, rainy November day, sat in my studio listening to the rain, it seems a long time since half term holidays last week. It seems to my sun starved brain a long time since walking in the Suffolk countryside absorbing the sweet, autumn sun. Walking out, away from the village of Long Melford, away from the horses in their fields, past the sheep and into the farmers ploughed land - I felt free. I packed my pockets with sloes. I collected acorns in their jaunty hats. I looked up at their Mother oak tree and felt comforted. I felt grounded and timeless at the same time. I walked without intention. I took some photos as reminders of place. I watched the light and drew the colours into my mind. And since then, back in the studio I have started a new series of work on landscape, and trees, and the time I spent meandering in nature is flowing on to the page in a way that seems to have escaped me earlier in the summer. I really do have an autumn soul.

You can see more images of my autumn journey on Instagram.

New in my shop!

Here are some of my new prints now available in my online shop at www.helenhallows.com They are limited edition giclee prints and are printed in a run of 100. Backed by the Fine Art Trade Guild the inks are guaranteed and the paper is of the highest quality. My amazing printer has a fantastic eye for colour and detail meaning he is able to capture all the richness and texture of the original artwork. The first time he handed me a print, I thought it was the original!

Garden Angel

Full Bloom

On the Move

Radiant Light

Faded Summer

Tree of Life

New work

Inspired by a recent trip to Snowshill National Trust property, I've got some new work underway.

I loved the warm palette of ochres and amber with highlights of rich puce pinks and magenta reds. This is the underpainting for a new landscape piece, capturing a layered landscape. I'll build this up with another layer of paint or ink before adding collage and also a layer of stitch.

Bonfire Night!

Happy Bonfire Night. Here at the Hallows house, we're enjoying the rituals of Autumn; Halloween and Bonfire Night. We are off this evening to go 'ooh' and 'aahhh' at the local display. I'm quite pleased it has gone chilly and I can don my new beret and layer up on the knitwear. The season suits me!

To celebrate all that is good about the nights drawing in I've had my print 'Night' on offer in my Etsy shop. Because I haven't yet blogged about it, I'm extending the offer until midnight tomorrow night (the 6th November). You can buy the print for £50 instead of the usual price of £65. Looking at the quilted landscape will keep you warm and those huge stars will remind you to look up and wonder at the miracle of life itself and that we are all made from stardust.

Here at home, we've been making toffee apples this afternoon with windfalls from the allotment and more sugar than I care to think about!!  Who knew they are so easy to make!?

Enjoy the fireworks!

A new collaboration

I'm very excited about a new collaboration with The Art Group who publish wall art and distribute internationally. I've just completed my first collection for them....not sure yet where they will end up but I'll let you know! Here's a sneak preview!

Inspiring

This is a detail of a piece that Penny created on my last landscapes workshop.  She really engaged with the different mark making techniques and applied it to her own images of travels in Vietnam.  The tumble down buildings on stilts along the waters edge were realised with an eclectic range of papers. Lovely!

New work

To the Rookery 18cm x 70cm

Valley Deep 40cm x 50 cm

Finally I've finished some work!  These are inspired by our time in Yorkshire earlier in the summer.  I loved the depth of the landscapes in Yorkshire: in contrast to East Anglia where we were last week, where the skies fill your vista.

These pieces are heading off to be scanned to become prints.

Pink and Yellow

I'm loving the landscape at the moment. The summer seams to have drenched Derbyshire in colour. There seems to be a real heightened pallette and I'm enjoying layering colour and texture. This is only small, 15cm x 15cm and is a paper and stitch piece.