Blog

A Round Up of Recent releases…

12 October 2023
Roo Waterhouse
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Categories: Blog

Last week I delivered my latest bespoke commission ‘Younger Next Year’ in time for the client’s husband’s big birthday – he loved it – always such a relief!!

Now that I have a couple of studio-based weeks without rushing around to events, I thought I would do a little
Round Up of some Recent Releases
as I can never be quite sure that I have told you about them all.

I really should be more organised, with proper launches etc. but, hey ho, that’s not really my style!! 😂

Firstly, two new Limited Editions prints for you:

‘Partners In Crime‘
because autumn is the perfect time of year to curl up on the sofa with a pile of classic Agatha Christie paperbacks and a mug of cocoa 🙂

‘Look At This‘
a nostalgic shelfful of Ladybird books to take you back to your early school days…

Drift away with the flow of the river and memories of summer with
‘By The River’
now available as an A4 mounted print

Two new greetings cards from my Portico Library collaboration:
Spine[Less] and Portico
are now in my online shop too 🙂

 

Getting Christmas sorted early….

I know we’re not past Hallowe’en yet, but I have been gathering gifts already, as I like to get my Christmas present buying started in October (if not before!) and well sorted by the time December gets underway.

To encourage you to do the same I am offering you an exclusive 10% off throughout my website shop from now until the 4th December 🙂

Simply add the code:

EARLYXMAS23

to your basket…

Roo’s Shop

… and the sun did eventually shine in Dumfries & Galloway!

Thank you Wigtown Book Festival people for a super weekend!

… and another thank you to all the lovely visitors at York National Book Fair, now that I have actually added you to my mailing list!

With Best Wishes
Roo

Spine[less]: Rebinding The Portico

21 August 2023
Roo Waterhouse
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Categories: Art Events, Blog, Events

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/

Open Studios Tomorrow!! Online shop closed 10th July to 4th August…

6 July 2023
Roo Waterhouse
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Categories: Art Events, Blog

Tomorrow the Hebden Bridge Open Studios Weekend begins!!! 
Friday 7th, Saturday 8th and Sunday 9th July 11am to 5pm

I’ll be offering 20% off throughout my online shop from now up until midnight on Sunday 9th:
Simply enter the code
HITCHHIKER20
in your basket
Roo’s Shop

Theo and I (and Action Girl too, of course!) are looking forward to welcoming you into my studio 🙂
You’ll find us on the first floor at:
Northlight Art Studios
Valley Road
Hebden Bridge
HX77BZ
where you will also find a fabulous array of other artists and makers, including:
Kelletur; Toby Cotterill Jewellery; Kate Boyce Art; Katch Skinner Ceramics; Jane Revitt Mapworks; Rach Red Designs; Red Mouse Designs; Don Myers Painting
along with a Showcase exhibition of our talented students’ work from our classes at Northlight Art School….
Straight after the Open Studios Weekend I will be off on a fantastic holiday, with my grown-ups Rory and Theo, to visit my niece and her family on Vancouver Island…
We are SOOOOOO excited!!!
I have my suitably-themed holiday reading planned: Alice Munro for a Canadian voice, and The Overstory for the spirit of the redwoods. I’ve read both before, but there’s nothing like being in the company of old friends when travelling!

PLEASE NOTE THAT NO ONLINE ORDERS WILL BE PROCESSED BETWEEN
Monday 10th July and Thursday 3rd August

I wish you all a very sunny summertime 🙂

With Best Wishes
Roo
Roo Waterhouse Art
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Open Studios with New Science Fiction!

24 June 2023
Roo Waterhouse
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Categories: Art Events, Blog, Events
Just a couple of weeks to go until the fabulous Hebden Bridge Open Studios Weekend!!! 
Friday 7th, Saturday 8th and Sunday 9th July 11am to 5pm

Here I am in my studio at Northlight Art Studios, putting the finishing touches to my Portico Library collaboration paintings – over Open Studios weekend you can get an sneaky exclusive preview of the finished paintings in my studio, before they head off for framing for their exhibition at the Portico Library in Manchester. There will be an exciting event there in September, which you can find out more about here 🙂

To celebrate Open Studios weekend, I am releasing a new Limited Edition print ‘The Edge of Time’ 
A space-age and dystopian/utopian collection of classic science fiction novels, although I must admit to having only read two of them myself (which are two of my favourite books of all time).
Woman on The Edge of Time really blew me away the first time I read it, and still does today, and there is nothing on earth like The Hitch Hikers Guide To The Galaxy!
….and before you faint with shock at how un-well-read I am, yes, I have read parts of 1984 and A Clockwork Orange, just not the whole books!
Buy The Edge of Time LE Print Here
…and of course, as well as being able to have a chat and a nosey around my studio at the Shelf Portrait paintings and prints, there will be Art Cards, Tote Bags and Mugs for sale, along with some special bargains 🙂

For your eyes only, I am giving a whopping 20% off both online and in person at my studio up until 6pm on Sunday 9th July.
Just add the code:
Hitchhiker20
in your basket, or say ‘Hitchhiker 20’ to Theo or myself when you purchase at Open Studios 🙂
Totes and Mugs

I look forward to seeing some of you in my studio on Friday 7th, Saturday 8th and Sunday 9th July!!

With Best Wishes
Roo
Roo Waterhouse Art

Seaside Inspiration and Vintage Penguin Print :-)

25 April 2023
Roo Waterhouse
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Categories: Blog

I’m feeling in fine fettle this morning, still glowing from a glorious day at the Formby Beach on Saturday. Such a beautiful place: endless beach to wander, admiring sea shells; sand as fine as silk; wavy sand dunes to picnic in; pine woods to get lost in; evidence of red squirrels retrieving buried nuts (sadly no actual sightings of the ‘bouncing bundles of bushy-tailed energy’…).
It was such a peaceful and relaxing day….

 
Which got me thinking….

What about a Seaside themed Shelf Portrait painting?

My ideas so far (with a few from my own shelves pictured…):

Brighton Rock; Rebecca; Jamaica Inn; The Shell Seekers; My Family and Other Animals; The Old Man and the Sea; The Riddle of the Sands; The Beach; On Chesil Beach; The Salt Path; The Summer Book; The Ladybird book of Seashore Birds; Miffy at The Seaside…

All ideas welcome please!!

IN FACT – if you send me your suggestions I will put your name in a hat and at the end of April I will pick two names and send them a SPECIAL GIFT each!! 🙂
Calling All Vintage Penguin Paperback Lovers!!!

My latest Limited Edition Print
‘The Going Was Good’
is out now and available in my website shop 🙂

Limited Edition archival print on 280g Fine Art paper

Numbered out of an edition of 100
Signed and numbered under the image by the artist
with a certificate of authentication on the back

The printed image measures 16 x 16 inches.
Buy ‘The Going Was Good’ print here

Best Wishes from Me and Theo at the seaside 🙂

Roo
Roo’s Shop

Busy Busy Busy!

29 March 2023
Roo Waterhouse
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Categories: Bespoke Painting, Blog

The primroses are out in my garden, and I am back to having my barefoot evening stroll in the woods, listening to the birds singing their evening songs….

This Spring I’ll be busy in my studio with Bespoke paintings, as I’m now booked up until April 2024!!

Obviously no sneak peaks of works in progress, but here is a little gallery of some recent commissions…
‘Hug’ for Theo 2023; ‘Moondust’ for Karen 2023; ‘Amore a Prima Vista’ for John and Dawn 2022 and ‘D&K’ for Duncan 2022
You can take a closer look at these, and find out more about how to commission your own Bespoke painting here.

New for April 2023!

‘By The River’ Limited Edition Print

Drift away with the flow and imagine yourself paddling, swimming, strolling, or simply lazing by the river….

This image of my original Shelf Portrait oil painting ‘By The River’ is available as a special Limited Edition Print.

Limited Edition archival print on 280g Fine Art paper

Numbered out of an edition of 100
Signed and numbered under the image by the artist
with a certificate of authentication on the back

The printed image measures 12 x 16 inches.
Buy ‘By The River’ here

Best Wishes,
Roo
Roo’s Shop

(Affordable Art Fair Battersea) Spring is Here!

7 March 2023
Roo Waterhouse
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Categories: Art Events, Blog, Events

This week I have been busy packing up paintings to send down south for the Battersea Spring Affordable Art Fair
So I thought I’d give you a little Private View of what will be on display at the Fair with Nicholas Bowlby Gallery :

‘By The River’  2022 oil on canvas 30x40cm

 

‘Pathways’  2022 oil on canvas 30x 40cm

 

‘What The Dickens’  2022 oil on canvas 40x40cm

 

 ‘Look At This’  2022 oil on canvas40x40cm

 

‘The Edge of Time’  2022 oil on canvas 30x40cm

 

 ‘Beatitude’ 

You’ll find these paintings of mine on Stand A5 at the Affordable Art Fair in Battersea Park from Thursday March 9th to Sunday March 12th

You can grab yourself FREE TICKETS by using the code NIB-GC at this link:

GET AAF TICKETS HERE

 

 

Best Wishes,

Roo

 

 

Portico Library

1 February 2023
Roo Waterhouse
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Categories: Blog

Last week I had a fascinating time visiting the Portico Library in Manchester.

Such a wonderful atmosphere, surrounded by walls of leather-bound volumes in varying states of wellbeing. Warm lighting from reading lamps, comfy armchairs, mugs of tea on the side tables with folk immersed in reading and research.
What a special place!

I’m very excited to tell you that I will be collaborating with this fabulous library on a project highlighting their beautiful and well-used collection, and promoting their Adopt a Book scheme to help resurrect their more crumbling editions….

I’ll be painting two Shelf Portrait oil paintings.
The first will picture a selection of the more delicate ‘spineless’ books, in need of some TLC, but so fascinating with their variety of under papers: scraps from old newspapers; sheets of hand-written accounts; pages from other books, some upside-down or sideways…
This painting is going to be quite a challenge, but fabulously fun!

The second painting will be representative of the breadth of the Portico’s collection (warts and all, history-wise), and will include some of the skilfully re-bound books, retaining the front and back covers and magically blending them into a new spine with beautifully rendered gold titles.

During September 2023, the Portico Library will be putting the paintings on display, and hosting an event for members and visitors where the conservation team will be giving a presentation about their Adopt a Book scheme, and I will be talking about the paintings. So put Thursday 14th September in your diaries!

The paintings will be for sale, with a percentage of the sale price going to the Portico’s Endangered Book List Fund.
I will also be producing greeting cards from the paintings, which will be for sale in the Portico Library Shop 🙂

So, it’s all very exciting! It was such fun to select the books for the painting and arrange them on the dark wooden shelves – a big thank you to Pat and the rest of the library collections team 🙂

In the meantime, I am immersing myself in a bundle of Pan Paperbacks by the prolific and popular author Agatha Christie. So many classic typefaces to render, and so many delightful scuffs and torn edges 🙂
You can view a little video of me at work here. (I invested in a new phone holder to make it easier to film myself painting, but it attaches to my drawing board and moves whenever I lean on the board, so apologies for the wobbles!!)
Best Wishes,
Roo

Festive Greetings !

15 December 2022
Roo Waterhouse
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Categories: Blog

Thank you all for your lovely messages and orders!
I’ll be packing up the last orders today to post out first class tomorrow, then I’ll be having a little break until the New Year to catch up with myself and my wonderful family 🙂
My very favourite thing to do this time of year is to light my lovely Angel Chimes and sit, watch and listen to the delicate ting-ting-ting of the bells…

Wishing you a very

Merry and Bright
Christmas-time

and a

Peaceful and Cosy
New Year

Roo

P.S.
Last chance today to use your
10% OFF across my online shop 🙂
Simply add the code:
FAIR10
in your basket.