late afternoon two days in a row the sun had been shining the woods were cold
blue sky woods
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Tag Archives: leeds
Winter afternoons
Poetry links:
The wistful whispering of winter woods, Jim Cunningham
There’s a certain slant of light, Emily Dickinson
Woods in Winter, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
And you can see some sketches here.
Wharfedale – Tour de France Stage 1
A Yorkshire day – view from the Chevin. A new painting commissioned and sold this week by Bono Art Gallery in Otley. On Saturday 5th July 2014 the first stage of Le Tour de France will pass through Otley and the Wharfe valley (scene of this painting) en route from Leeds to Harrogate via the Yorkshire Dales.
Pictures at an exhibition
To coincide with the current exhibition of my new paintings at Otley Courthouse, here’s a look at where and how some of it happened.
The exhibition has been extended from 6th – 11th January 2014, open Mon-Sat, 10am-4pm. (N.B. closed for the holidays between 21st Dec and 5th Jan). The preview event is Sunday 8th December, 6-8pm, and everybody is welcome. Click here for more information.
The end of October
A pigeon flies past and leaves blow off the trees.
British suburban houses
This watercolour of houses across the street came about from wanting to paint something that was uninspiring – because painting is painting, whatever the subject – and painting can transform your view of things. It was supposed to be an exercise in letting my hand do the thinking.
But the picture fits within the British landscape tradition – and might even fall into the category of suburban art. These houses were built in 1937. Painting them led me to read Stevie Smith’s poems about the suburbs – and about the place and contribution of the suburbs to twentieth-century British culture. “Round about the streets I slink / Suburbs are not so bad I think…”
Links:
Showing paintings of British suburban houses to Saudis – BBC News Magazine, 2012 “The Suburban Classes” by Stevie Smith
“Suburbs are not so bad I think”: Stevie Smith’s Problem of Place in 1930s and ‘40s London by Kristin Bluemel, 2003
Gledhow Wood Road
Sunlight through the trees. This is the top end of the road, painted at the end of August. It’s also a homage to John Atkinson Grimshaw (1836–1893) who painted similar scenes of Leeds in the moonlight.
Route home
On my local journey home, this is the last street before mine. The Scotland trip has worn off so I’m painting what’s around me here. This picture makes me feel happy – I lived in that house for a short while.
Gledhow Wood Road
Living by the woods
The back of my house faces the woods – it’s like a green wall in summer. I’ve been separating out the trees to give myself a subject. Somehow doing this also makes me feel less oppressed by the wall – a gathering of 10,000 trees that are twice as old as me and twice as high as my house.
Gledhow Valley Woods
I’ve been reviewing my work for the next exhibition. These are the woods in autumn, winter and early spring.
October
October
February
March
Jo Dunn 