Children’s, Illustrated & Detective Fiction Book Fair – 9th November

I’m very happy to be taking part in this year’s Northern Children’s Illustraed and Detective Fiction Book Fair in Harrogate on Saturday 8th November.

We hope you can join us as this book fair is the only one of its kind.  It provides an opportunity for serious collectors as well as general collectors in all three areas.

A great day out for all the family.  With it being held just before Christmas it is a great opportunity to search for a gift, be that a book or some Bookshelf Art!!

https://www.pbfa.org/fairs/northern-illustrated-childrens-detective-fiction-november-2025

8th November 2025, 10:00 – 16:00

Pavilions of Harrogate, Yorkshire Event Centre, Harrogate, North Yorkshire, HG2 8NZ

Oxford PBFA Book Fair – 18th October

This is a one-day book fair in Oxford, and, alongside me and my Bookshelf Art, there will be around 75 dealers offering rare, collectable and second-hand books, maps, manuscripts and ephemera.

https://www.pbfa.org/fairs/oxford-book-fair-october-2025

Open Saturday 18th October 10 am – 4 pm

Café on site 🙂

Oxford Brookes University, Headington Campus, Gipsy Lane, Oxford, OX3 0BP

Harrogate PBFA Book Fair

The sign of a good book fair
www.pbfa.org

We are delighted to invite you to the

HARROGATE BOOK FAIR – New venue

Friday 21st March, 12 noon – 6pm
& Saturday 22nd March, 10am – 4pm

The Old Swan Hotel, Swan Road, HG1 2SR

To see the exhibitors and highlights please click here.

Download your free entry ticket here

I will be there promoting my Bespoke Shelf Portraits Commissions,

along with some Bookshelf Art prints and cards 🙂

We look forward to welcoming you!

Affordable Art Fair Battersea

A selection of my latest paintings will be exhibited at the Affordable Art Fair in Battersea Park from 12th-16th March

With a Private View on Wednesday 5-9pm

and opening

Thursday & Friday 11am-9pm

Saturday & Sunday 11am-6pm

You will find my work on display with Nicholas Bowlby Gallery at Stand A7

‘Southern Lights’ 30x40cm oil on canvas Roo Waterhouse 2025

You can get yourself a complimentary (that’s FREE!) ticket

for the Affordable Art Fair HERE!

‘Poetry Please’ 30x40cm oil on canvas Roo Waterhouse 2025

Northlight Winter Fair :-)

Northlight Winter Fair

It’s our annual Winter Fair event!


Our fabulous studio holders* will be hosting stalls to showcase their artistic goodies and gifts 🙂


You all get to come and visit, eat mince pies, buy locally made Christmas presents direct from the makers, win a raffle prize perhaps, drink some mulled wine, make a crafty something and enjoy a little festive feeling!


Saturday 7th December 11am-5pm
& Sunday 8th December 11am-5pm

stallholders including:

Roo Waterhouse Art (that’s me!)

Rach Red Designs

Red Mouse Design

Katch Skinner Ceramics

Jane Revitt Mapworks

Don Myers Painting

Toby Cotterill Jewellery

Annie Harrison ceramics & textiles

and more….
Yay!!

#hebdenmakeschristmas Open Studios!

 

On Saturday 30th November and Sunday 1st December I will be joining other artists all around Hebden Bridge and my fellow artists here at Northlight Studios by taking part in the #hebdenmakeschristmas Open Studios weekend 🙂

I’m looking forward to chatting all things bookish and artish with anyone who cares to pop in to my studio 🙂

I’ll be there from 10.30 until 4pm on the Saturday and Sunday

Open Studios This Weekend!!

Open Studios Special: Part Two

‘Beside The Seaside’: New Release Limited Edition Print

U is for Unveil!

This weekend, especially for summer OPEN STUDIOS, I will be unveiling a new
Limited Edition Print release: ‘Beside The Seaside‘.

Let your mind drift off to the sun, sand and sea with this collection of seaside themed works of fiction, fact and adventure!

As subscribers I am releasing it to you today, with a special 10% discount through my online shop (use code SEASIDE at the checkout)
on ALL Limited Edition prints until the end of July!!

Here’s hoping for some seaside weather soon!!

Buy Beside The Seaside 🙂
Shelf Portrait in Progress Image by John Linney

N is for Northlight

I love having my studio space at Northlight Art Studios! It is so nourishing to be surrounded by a cooperative of lovely artists and makers… This weekend you can come and meet:
Martha Breeze (Kelletur); Kate Boyce (Painting); Juliet Blackman (Ceramics); Don Myers (Painting); Rach Red (Print & Design); Annie Harrison (Ceramics & Print);Toby Cotterill (Jewellery) and, of course ME!

Studios Open this weekend
10.30am – 5pm
Friday 5th, Saturday 6th & Sunday 7th July
You will find my studio on the first floor at Northlight Art Studios, and to show my appreciation for all your lovely support, you will be given a free Book Art Card of your choice! (you’ll just need to ask!)
AND there will be 10% off ALL Limited Edition prints!!
More About Open Studios
Hello! Image by John Linney

I hope to see you over the weekend 🙂

Best Welcoming Wishes,
Roo

Still Reading: ‘H is for Hawk’ by Helen MacDonald

Roo’s Shop Here 🙂

Spine[less]: Rebinding The Portico

I’d like to tell you about an exciting project I am working on in collaboration with the Portico Library in Manchester. When I first walked into the Portico Library I was immediately drawn to the most damaged books: the ‘spineless’ books in the collection, with their scuffed

leather tones and fascinating array of under-papers, held together with cotton ribbons.  These hidden under-layers, of the centenarian books standing exposed along the shelves: hand-written accounts ledgers; scraps from newspapers; advertisement flyers; lines of script; all assumed by the original book-binders to never see the light of day. Looking along the library shelves we get a glimpse into hidden histories…

I had gone in to the library originally to see if they might like to stock some of my art cards in their shop, but they were SO enthusiastic about my work and I was SO enthusiastic about their books, that our ideas grew into a painting project 🙂 

This collaboration celebrates the importance of the Portico library as a home of

literature, history and learning.

In September this year the paintings will be displayed in the library, and on September 14th there will be an evening event ‘Spine[less]: Rebinding The Portico’ where there will be presentations from the Portico’s Collections Manager and from myself 🙂

You can book tickets for the event here: https://www.theportico.org.uk/event-calendar/spineless-rebinding-event

From Thursday 12th October 2023 – Friday 26th January 2024, the paintings will be part of an exhibition in the library promoting the Portico’s Adopt-a-Book scheme, highlighting the importance of preservation, restoration and the need for rebinding books. Members of the library are invited to Adopt-a-Book and pay for it to be rebound: to be brought back into use: to be reborn! The finished paintings will be for sale,with 25% of the sale price going to the Portico Library 🙂 

In progress in my studio at the moment are the two Portico paintings: one of a shelfful of the exposed ‘spineless’ books, and another of a collection of ornately bound books from the Portico’s collection. It is such a joy to delicately translate these ornate and battered spines into paint across the canvas, relishing all the little handwritten details and worn edges. 

I can’t wait to unveil the finished, framed paintings at the library when we set up the display next week!!

You can find out more about the Portico Library and their Adopt-a-Book scheme:

https://www.theportico.org.uk/

https://www.theportico.org.uk/adoptabook

…and more about me here: https://roowaterhouse.art/about-roo-waterhouse-shelf-portrait-artist/