I'm a painter and printmaker in Yorkshire. I’d love to inspire you to make deeper connections with nature and the outdoors, through art. You will receive a Get Inspired! email on a Sunday morning each month.
Why not take it easy in January?
Published 3 months ago • 3 min read
Angie Rogers Artist
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Connecting you to Landscape, Nature and The Wild
Bringing The Outside In.
Hello and welcome!
Don’t you get fed up with all the new year overload of advice to change/do more/make resolutions/reinvent yourself etc etc? You just end up feeling guilty.
January feels like a terrible time to do anything like that here in the UK. So why not be guided instead by the seasons in your part of the world.
Like the winter trees I’m planning to take it easy until the start of spring. One morning you’ll wake up and know that change is in the air, the force of Nature will take you by the hand and lead you into the new because the time is right.
The winter rest and reflection time does not of course rule out wonderful nature walks where you can find something beautiful to bring inside and remind you of the potential that always awaits when you step outdoors.
After rain, wind or snow, dislodged twigs scatter the ground under trees. Have you ever really looked at them? The lichens and mosses form intricate mini worlds I like to take home and study closely.
The fresh ones are vibrant and flexible like in the first picture. The ones below are about a year old, crispy but still beautiful to my eyes.
Amanda Cobbett is a UK textile artist who makes the most amazing recreations of twigs and similar natural forms, all from machine embroidery. Her website www.amandacobbett.com is well worth visiting and there’s a good article in World Of Interiors: https://www.worldofinteriors.com/story/amanda-cobbett-lichen-work
Here’s a glorious example of her work. Her fungi are equally brilliant too.
A New Oxymoron
The upper Calder valley where I live has its own weird little microclimate. We have a lot of ‘weather’ which inevitably leads to needing many descriptive words when someone asks ‘what’s it like outside?’ You try to give an accurate picture so they can dress appropriately.
Oxymoron is a fancy but useful figure of speech describing the pairing of two contradictory ideas, like keenly stupid as in sharp and dull.
Recently we invented a new one. There’s lashing rain, rain, drizzle, mist and mizzle which is misty rain, and now we have - ‘lashing mizzle’.
Lashing implies windy and mizzle implies still but the definition of lashing mizzle is like being sprayed from all directions at once by a malfunctioning plant mister. Harmless but very annoying!
Obsession with the weather may be a cliché but it demonstrates an involved connection with the natural world I would never want to be without.
A recent misty morning high above Hebden Bridge. The chimney belongs to the mill on the hill at Old Town.
Milltown
This is a giclée print of my charcoal drawing of the same mill but from the other side, the hill in the background is where I took the misty photograph from.
Angie Rogers, Calderdale Mill In Winter, Giclee Print, 20 x 20 cm, from original charcoal drawing.
It’s surprising how many of the old textile mill chimneys survive, though there is always somebody somewhere in Hebden Bridge looking to fell another one. Fortunately the developer restoring Old Town mill has respected this venerable and well-loved landmark.
I like drawing these structures that almost seem like geological features, although I find architecture and straight lines tricky and a challenge compared to natural shapes. They lend themselves well to a winter landscape especially when contrasted against snow.
I think you have to feel fond of these chimneys, they are so much a part of the story of this valley. Whilst they can be seen as standing for the exploitation of working class people by greedy mill owners, it wasn’t all misery for the people who toiled in the mills. When I first moved here I met a very old lady who had many happy memories of her workplace and companions.
So I prefer to view the chimneys as monuments to the close knit communities of people who lived here in the past.
Angie Rogers, Snow On The Canal, Giclee Print, 20 x 20 cm, from chalk on blackboard original.
The original artworks are in private collections but if you feel either of these could be your introduction to collecting my work, affordable reproduction prints are available to buy on my website shop in the Giclée Prints Charcoal section. They look good with traditional or modern frames and can suit any style of decor in your room.
Many thanks to Maggie who sent me some very kind feedback after last month's email. Don't forget to send me your suggestions, questions or thoughts; you know I love to hear from you.
Another mill chimney on the Rochdale canal at Hebden Bridge. A sudden dramatic rise in temperature caused the semi-frozen canal to create an unusual mist as though the water was steaming..
Well it’s a short and hopefully sweet one this time. Enjoy the coming month’s seasonal changes in nature - there’s always some however subtle, you just need to pay attention. Wherever you are, watch the sky, look out for the phases of the moon, let your busy thoughts float away on a gentle cloudscape and most of all, get inspired!
I'm a painter and printmaker in Yorkshire. I’d love to inspire you to make deeper connections with nature and the outdoors, through art. You will receive a Get Inspired! email on a Sunday morning each month.
