C is for Childhood Favourites….

‘When We Were Very Young’ Limited Edition print

The worlds of imagination that we find in books as children can expand our universe and expand our minds, helping us to see that there is a big wide world of opportunities and adventure out there…

One of my favourites to dip in and out of was A. A. Milnes When We Were Very Young’, which brought such delight and thrills to everyday life: there was a man that wasn’t there half way down the stairs! There were bears hiding around the corner! …and the simple happiness of John with his Great Big Waterproof Boots on…

I included this wonderful book in my painting of the same title, which is available to buy as a Limited Edition print in an edition of 100.

When We Were Very Young
‘Sarah’s Room’ the next Childhood themed Limited Edition print?

M is for Milly Molly Mandy

The copy of Milly Molly Mandy pictured in  ‘Sarah’s Room’ belonged to my mother as a child. The first of Joyce Lankester Brisley’s MIlly Molly Mandy stories were published in 1928, the year my mother was born, and they are still being republished today.

When she passed this copy on to my youngest, we were delighted to discover that Granjay had been a naughty child and scribbled on the illustrations with crayons! Very reassuring to discover that one’s parents are actually fallible human beings!

I was thinking of bringing this second childhood themed painting out as a new Limited Edition print – what do you reckon?
Which of these books takes you back to your childhood? I’d love to know!

‘Hug’ – a bespoke painting

H is for Hug

For one more glance back to childhood, this painting ‘Hug’ was a bespoke present for my youngest, Theo. He chose  his most treasured books on his 18th birthday, and I painted this Shelf Portrait ready for his 21st.

As you can see from the tape (barely) holding it together, Jez Alborough’s ‘Hug’ , was a favourite toddler book!

“I liked the idea that the smallest hug has the power to fill up even the largest animal” says Jez.

If you are looking for that illusive unique gift for a special someone in your life, what about a bespoke Shelf Portrait?

You can find out more on my website, or reply to this email with your enquiry 🙂

Bespoke paintings

Yes, it’s that fabulous time of year again!
Hebden Bridge artists and makers will be opening their doors and welcoming you into their studios over the weekend of

July 5th-7th from 10.30am to 5pm 🙂

More details to follow……

Best nostalgic childhood wishes,
Roo

Currently Reading: ‘Joan Eardley’ by Christopher Andreae

Roo’s Shop Here 🙂

New Book Art Notebook Range…

Notebooks are back!
(Well, you kept asking, so what could I do!!)

With three new designs:
By The RiverVintage Penguins and Agatha Christie,
alongside the ever popular Jane Austen and Science Fiction.

Shop Notebooks Here
You can take a look at the notebooks in person if you happen to be in Harrogate this weekend.
I’ll be exhibiting at the PBFA Harrogate Premier Book Fair
on Friday 15th March 12noon to 6pm
and Saturday 16th from 10am to 4pm.

You can even download a free ticket for two here 🙂
…and there’s a new Agatha Christie mug too!! The perfect vessel for a cosy cuppa with your whodunnit reading 🙂

Best Mystery Wishes

Roo

Currently Reading: ‘Lights, Planets, People’ by Molly Naylor and Lizzy Stewart

Roo’s Shop Here 🙂

Northlight Winter Fair This Weekend!

Here at Northlight Art Studios we will be opening the Art Space for our annual festive treat that is the Winter Fair 🙂

Come and meet my lovely fellow artists and makers, with gift inspiration galore, along with the festive aroma of mulled wine and delicious cakes…YUM!

We’ll be open from 10.30am to 5pm, Saturday 2nd and Sunday 3rd. I might even wear a festive(ish) jumper!
Do come along 🙂
Northlight Art Studios, Valley Road (and Hangingroyd Lane), Hebden Bridge HX77BZ

Here follows a selection of goodies from Northlighters.. click on each image to find out more.
Happy Browsing 🙂

Toby Cotterill
Katch Skinner
Rachel Red
Jane Revitt
Kate Boyce
Martha Breeze
Don Myers
Northlight Winter Fair
My new What The Dickens! and Science Fiction mugs and Tote bags are now available in my online shop 🙂

Don’t forget to use your code: EARLYXMAS23 for 10% off throughout the shop until December 4th
(or ask me for a mailing list discount at the Northlight Fair).

Derby Book Fair Tomorrow!!

If you are in or around Derby tomorrow, Saturday 18th November, do pop in to The Derby Book Fair at The Wardwick to see my latest prints, cards, mugs and tote bags.
Get all your bookish gifts sorted!

I’ll be there from 10.30am to 5pm. I promise to have an impressive array of tinsel and baubles to bring some festive cheer!!

Christmas Special!

To accompany my new What The Dickens! Limited Edition print, I have produced a small batch of What The Dickens! mugs and tote bags.
Currently only available in person – so come and find me at Derby Book Fair or Northlight Winter Fair!!
Prepare yourself for an atmospheric Dickensian Christmas this year!

Getting Christmas sorted early….

To encourage you to get Christmas sorted early, 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…

Northlight Winter Fair

Northlight Art Studios will be opening up the ground floor Art Space for their annual Winter Fair

on Saturday 2nd and Sunday 3rd December 10.30am to 5pm

There will be over a dozen Northlight Artists taking part, including:

Roo Waterhouse Art

Rachel Red

Emma Hutchinson

Jane Revitt

Kate Boyce Art

Toby Cotterill Jewellery

Rachel Heny

Martha Breeze

Pete & Carol Leonard

Don Myers

Katch Skinner

Bambi

as well as cakes, mulled wine, a raffle with lots of lovely prizes, and an art activity for kids young and old!

 

This is just one of the events going on as a part of Hebden Bridge Open Studios Winter Weekend 🙂

Follow #hebdenmakeschristmas to find more artists involved.

Let’s get Christmas sorted!!

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/

Open Studios with New Science Fiction!

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 CardsTote 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

(Affordable Art Fair Battersea) Spring is Here!

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

 

 

Northlight Winter Fair !!

It’s our annual Winter Fair event at Northlight Art Studios!
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!
#hebdenmakeschristmas
Yay!!

 

Indulge Your Imagination In Every Possible Flight!

”Indulge your imagination in every possible flight.”
– Jane Austen,
 Pride and Prejudice

Most excellent advice!
Have you had a chance to relax and let your imagination take flight this summer?
My Jane Austen painting image is now available as a mounted print, ready to pop into an A4 frame and up on your wall to help your thoughts wander into the realms of fiction and fantasy as autumn approaches….
Shop Jane Austen
I nipped over to North Wales for a few days last week, where I relaxed and let my thoughts wander: resting up a tree above Dorothea Quarry; floating about in the beautiful
Llyn Nantlle (not for long- it wasn’t warm!!)

”To sit in the shade on a fine day and look upon verdure is the most perfect refreshment.” – Jane Austen, Mansfield Park

This time in 2 weeks I will be setting up my stall at the fabulous Wigtown Book Festival. It will be so lovely to be back there again after two years of postponement 🙂
The festival runs from Friday 23rd September to Sunday 2nd October. There will be some fabulous author events including Anna ReidLauren ChildJohn Boyne and many, many others..
Also a performance from The Bookshop Band, a folk duo singing songs inspired by books 🙂

I will be on my stall in the Kist Marquee from Wednesday 28th to Sunday 2nd and look forward to seeing some of you there 🙂

 

Best Wishes,
Roo

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