Angie Rogers Artist

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Connecting you to Landscape, Nature and The Wild.

A Moorland Story
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Hello there friends,

I hope you are coping well with the heatwave and finding somewhere cool to rest in, like the lovely dappled shade of woodland.

It’s less than a week until Hebden Bridge Open Studios on 3rd 4th and 5th of July and so I am very busy in Linden Mill preparing for the event, especially as I now have 2 studios to present, one for printmaking and one for painting and drawing.

Both studios are on the sunny side of the mill, facing south. In winter the sun on my large windows creates much-needed warmth but it can become almost unbearable in hot weather.

Luckily I have this lovely old fan at the mill. I enjoy its design and sculptural qualities, reminding me of birds wings somehow. But the great thing is it still works fine and is an effective cooler.

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Have you ever visited an open studios event? Not only do you get to explore a huge variety of art and talk to artists about their work, you also can view the inside of quirky old buildings such as Linden Mill

And have you ever wondered about all the decisions an artist needs to make to present their work at its best? Within the limitations of the space available? You might be surprised at how much thought, time and effort goes into hanging all those pictures.

It’s pleasing to have a focus artwork that tells a story. This year in the print studio I’ve made a feature of one of my favourite woodcuts.

I have a lovely old hardwood easel, double-sided, from the early 20th century, probably from an art school, which I bought from an outdoor market in Hebden Bridge. I felt obliged to negotiate on the price with the vendor but she was having none of it! She did agree to help me carry it back to my studio a few streets away, as being hardwood it is surprisingly heavy, so I considered that a good deal.

I rescued a couple of vintage wooden picture frames that originally came from my great-grandparents house. They spent over 30 years stored in a garage but are now having some time in the spotlight.

I’ve selected the easel and one of the frames to exhibit my large woodcut print of moorland at Walshaw Dean. This is the one that was chosen by publishers Little Toller Books to be the front cover of the 2025 anthology The Book Of Bogs.

Life is full of surprises, its painful to admit I had high hopes of selling a good few of the woodcut edition following the publication of the book, but no, not a single one! Disappointing.

Anyway I’ve placed my copy of the book in a box frame above the easel and hope this set-up may produce some magic. Selling art is a complete mystery.

It’s OK though because I’ve enjoyed the process of putting it all together and feel satisfied with the visual result.

Displayed below the framed work is the block I carved to make the print from. It’s a sheet of plywood from a hardware store, nothing special. The block is very dark with ink stains from all the previous printing sessions (I only print a few at a time by hand) so I’ve dusted the surface with French chalk to contrast and highlight the incised marks.

Notice that the image on the block is a mirror image of the print - because that’s how printmaking works. You always have to remember to carve your image in reverse.

I usually print this block in either black or dark brown oil-based printing ink which is very viscous and sticky like treacle. It takes a few days to dry on the lovely off-white watercolour paper.

Later the whole sheet has to be briefly soaked in a water-bath then taped to a flat board to dry again. This ensures the paper will not buckle when I apply watercolour paint to bring the image alive. As you can imagine, all this is quite a process and explains why each print is uniquely different from all the others.

The inspiration for making this woodcut came on a long moorland walk partly on the Pennine Way heading towards Haworth.

After steadily climbing upwards from the Walshaw Dean reservoirs I turned to have a rest and look back at the path I had just come up.

This expansive vista was revealed and I knew I wanted to make and share an image conveying the sensation of freedom I always get when moving through the uplands.
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Here’s a link to the woodcut in my website shop if you are curious:

Walshaw Dean Woodcut

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Bringing The Outside In

Not strictly true because I left them outside on their tree to mature but here is another variety of pine cone completely different from the tiny lime green ones I showed you last month, but equally complex and beautiful:

And remember how last Autumn was a Mast Year with a super over abundance of tree seeds like acorns. Well in early June I took this photo in the same nearby woods, a whole host of tiny seedlings growing as a result of that amazing splurge.

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Hebden Bridge Open Studios July 3,4,5 2026

It would be a pleasure to meet any of you that can make it to Linden Mill, First Floor studios, Friday, Saturday and Sunday 10 am to 5 pm.

If you do visit, be sure to let me know you are a subscriber to my list.

Here is a link to the Open Studios website

hebdenbridgeopenstudios.org

I've never had a pair of studios before (they are both very modestly sized) so I guess I will be moving between the two during the opening - I'm not sure how that is going to work so wish me luck!

Ripples

A lot of you were concerned about the welfare of last months Sand Martins nesting in reservoir drainage holes. I was too, so looked into it further. The recesses are called ‘weep holes’ and let damp out of the earth bank dam so are not normally liable to sudden surges of water - phew!
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One positive outcome of a heatwave is that you get to enjoy the experience of sitting in shade instead of avoiding its normal chill and choosing the sunny bench (at least in the UK). So if you get the opportunity, go outside and view the world from the shelter of a benevolent tree.

All the best
Angie

PS Here’s a glorious, prolonged sunset I enjoyed during a recent stay at Sneatonthorpe, a small hamlet just outside Whitby on the North Yorkshire coast.

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