Angie Rogers Artist

GET INSPIRED

Connecting you to Landscape, Nature and The Wild.

The Early Year

Hello friends, wishing you happy times and good fortune in 2026. We certainly need both in the early year. It's a time to be kind to yourself and not get involved in harsh regimes of self-improvement. It's a time for reflection and contemplating all the things you hope to do when energy levels are higher.

And yes it's also a time for dressing warmly and venturing out into the winter landscape! The prevailing weather is significant of course and there’s still hope for more of those wonderful crystalline days of bright blue sky and glittering landscape.

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Martin Parr + 1970s + Hebden Bridge = A Loving Exploration

You might have seen in the news before Christmas that internationally admired photographer Martin Parr has died. His obituary appeared in all the main newspapers.

Some of you may also be aware that Parr lived and worked in Hebden Bridge during the 1970s. We are very fortunate that a subscriber to Get Inspired, Bob Pegg, also lived in Hebden at that time and worked with Martin.

I asked Bob if he would be willing to tell us more about this and so now he has very kindly written a fascinating first-hand account reflecting on Martin’s early career documenting a fading way of life in Hebden Bridge and the surrounding villages.

I’ve placed the article on my website Journal (blog) so that it will be permanently available. To read it click this link:

Read Bob Pegg’s article about photographer Martin Parr

Don't miss out on this opportunity to discover more about the formative work of a notable creative focusing on the disappearing farming and chapel communities in the upper Calder valley.

Thank you Bob Pegg, your contribution is greatly appreciated.

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Bringing The Outside In - Anglesey Rock

The first week of 2026 found me on Ynys Mon/Anglesey where I experienced a continuously unravelling tapestry of contrasting weather and beautiful landscapes. Everything was new to me as I’ve not stayed on the island before.

One of many highlights was stomping around Parys Mountain, a disused, opencast copper mine, worked from the Bronze Age to 1904. There’s a clear trail where you confront mesmerising heaps of multicoloured stone and an immense rocky depression all enriched by dazzling sunshine on the day I visited.

The red and yellow rocks at Parys are iron oxides and sulphates and the landscape there looks so otherworldly because of the chemical aftermath of intense, prolonged copper mining leaving behind these mineral deposits.

I don’t know what compels we lithophiles to collect bits of stone but it was such a challenge trying to choose from a gazillion lumps, talk about decision paralysis!

Back home I’m happy with my choice as these 3 rocks seem to sum up the feel of the place and handling their rough surfaces recalls the sound of boots crunching on red and yellow scree.

Stone is just so unimaginably ancient and holding it in your finite palm connects you to our planet in a special way if you allow it.

I found Parys Mountain so inspiring visually I would have loved to spend days there drawing, painting and wandering. Mind you I think I may have felt differently if the sky had been gloomy and full of rain!

Buzzards v Crows

Do you enjoy watching birds of prey? Seeing Buzzards rising in circles on the thermals is a wonderful sight. They seem so at ease in the air and glide apparently effortlessly in arcs across the sky. Such large, powerful birds and yet frequently mobbed by crows. I have seen a gang of crows drive an exhausted juvenile buzzard into the sea. I’m not sure that bird survived.

For many years you would hardly see any raptors around here. Our local moors are used as farms for grouse shooting. But over the last 10 years their numbers have increased and I regularly hear the distinctive mewing calls. Looking up through trees on my regular walk a few days ago, there were two fine Buzzards being irritated by three crows. You have to admire the sheer nerve of the crows.

Here’s ‘High Flier’ a small but powerful portrait of a buzzard I made using charcoal and Conté a Paris Pierre Noire pencils. Pierre noire meaning black stone (which seems appropriate after the above item about Anglesey rock) are pencils giving a lovely rich black and are indelible. They contrast well with the softer carbon pigment in willow charcoal.

When creating this artwork I was thinking about the strange wild otherness of Buzzards and similar raptors with their daily challenge of surviving on unforgiving moorland. Imagine if you had to hunt for your food every single day of your life.

Alongside that I had in mind the wonderful ancient Egyptian statues of the sky god Horus as a falcon. Common Buzzards are not in fact falcons, as I clarified today, in case you were wondering! All raptors have those savage looking beaks, piercing claws and penetrating eyes.

If you are smitten by High Flier you can find him in my website shop

View High Flier in the shop

The Ancient Egyptians recognised the energy and strength of birds of prey and made innumerable beautiful depictions of them. I find these deeply inspiring. Here are a few images I gathered online from wikimedia commons and some museums:

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Raptor Persecution

Raptor persecution is a real thing in the UK. Don’t you find it strange that wildlife documentaries are (rightly) tut-tutting over the illegal destroying of creatures such as elephants, wolves, and orangutans in other parts of the world but not much is said about the illegal killing of magnificent birds like Hen Harriers, Goshawks, Eagles, Peregrine Falcons, and Buzzards? And this in one of the worlds most nature depleted countries.

If this interests or concerns you, follow the link to the website of Raptor Persecution UK where a post on 18th January links to three free webinars for the Eyes On The Skies campaign organised by Friends Of The Dales, aiming to raise awareness about the criminal killing of birds of prey in the Yorkshire Dales National Park.

Go to Raptor Persecution UK

Ripples

Thanks for the positive feedback you sent after my last email. The Invincible Summer quote from Albert Camus, the philosopher and writer, resonated with quite a lot of you.
Who knows what February will bring and yet we know the wild world will be tirelessly active in ways both visible and hidden. You can look for the signs.

All the best
Angie

Visit my website and please let me know if anything's not working

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