(Reasonably) Calm and Collected!

 Hello 🙂

Phew! It’s been a busy old week…

Preparations for my Calm and Collected Exhibition this weekend are well underway and I’ve been buzzing about collecting paintings, framing prints, writing blurbs, and generally trying to pull everything together! As well as still working on a painting I would like to show (there will be a Wet Paint warning!!)

I had a great afternoon browsing around the Affordable Art Fair in Battersea while collecting some paintings. Such a variety of art on display. The highlight for me was the wonderful seaside light and atmosphere reflected in the colours of the buildings in the paintings of Camille Dowse

I managed to find time for family and nature too with a Thames-side walk in the morning sun, admiring the autumn colours in the park in the afternoon and a family feast in the evening 🙂

In celebration of my own architectural heritage (my great-great grandfather being the prolific, much admired Victorian architect Alfred Waterhouse) I have now published a series of 100 Limited Edition Mounted Prints of the original shelf portrait painting ‘Architectural Heritage’ and they are available to buy in my shop 🙂
Shop Architectural Heritage Print Here

There will be a preview evening of Calm and Collected
on Thursday 28th October from 6pm to 8pm
to which you are all invited.
The exhibition is then open on Friday 29th, Saturday 30th and Sunday 31st from 11am to 5pm.

I look forward to seeing you 🙂

Down to Earth

This summer I spent a wonderful few days with my grown up children in a beautiful wooden yurt at Henbant Farm in Caernarfon. Plenty of wandering about the land, watching the birds and the bees, and browsing all the inspiring planet-friendly books on the shelves of the common room outbuilding.

Our time there inspired these two Shelf Portrait paintings: ‘Down to Earth’ and ‘ABC of Bees’, which are now heading down to London to be on show with Nicholas Bowlby Gallery at The Autumn Affordable Art Fair in Battersea, October 21st-24th

Down to Earth ©2021RooWaterhouse 12×16″ oil on canvas

 

ABC of Bees ©2021RooWaterhouse 12×16″ oil on canvas

I’ve used the beautiful nature-inspired wallpaper patterns of Hannah Nunn for the backgrounds, which help set the mood perfectly 🙂

Look out for Limited Edition Prints coming soon!! Hopefully in time for ‘Calm and Collected’, my solo exhibition of recent paintings at Northlight Artspace in Hebden Bridge…..

A Lovely Busy Open Studios :-)

Open Studios July 2021

A big thank you to all the lovely, chatty people who visited, and a big WELCOME to all the new subscribers to Roo’s Mailing List!

It was so fabulous to have such friendly faces and enthusiastic book-related chats in my studio. The whole of Hebden Bridge was buzzing with visitors from near and far, and for once the weather was perfect too 🙂

AND… we get to do it all again in October!! The second Hebden Bridge Open Studios weekend of 2021 will run from October 1st-3rd with artists all over Hebden Bridge and the surrounding area opening their doors and welcoming visitors.

 I also had a successful weekend at the Affordable Art Fair in Battersea (not in person though, as it was the same weekend as Open Studios!) where Nicholas Bowlby Fine Art  showed my newest paintings.

‘Architectural Heritage’ and ‘About Florence’ (above) have gone to their new homes…

My creative energies have been boosted by all this lovely enthusiasm and I am ploughing it in to lots of new work. Here I am painting in a background using Hannah Nunn‘s gorgeous Daisy Meadow wallpaper for inspiration 🙂

I am now busy working on series of paintings for ‘Calm and Collected’, my next solo exhibition at Northlight Studios at the end of October. Details to follow!…..

 There is a new greeting card in my shop for anyone who enjoys a dose of 1960’s/70’s nostalgia 🙂

Take yourself back to memories of these classic childhood comic and TV show annuals! I used to spend hours and hours poring over these annuals as a child. We had one shelf full, and I must have read them all a hundred times! Whizzer and Chips, The Beano and the Blue Peter Annual were my favourites. Which were yours?

Shop Whizzer and Chips Card Here

I’m sad to see the back of the lovely hot, sunny spell – though I have had to take regular dips in the river to stay cool!

I hope you enjoy these magical glimpses of evening sunshine in the woods yesterday…

Best Wishes,

Roo

Rainbow of Reads: Limited Edition

A bright and cheerful image of my original Book Shelf Portrait oil painting ‘Rainbow of Reads’, featuring a rainbow shelf of iconic Penguin paperback books. Bring some colour and diversity in to your life with this fabulous Limited Edition Fine Art Print.

  • Limited Edition Fine Art 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
  • Backed and Mounted (except for United States and Europe**)
  • If in stock: shipped in 2 to 3 working days
  • On back order (or international): shipped in 10-14 working days

The printed image measures 12 x 24 inches.
Total size including window mount approx 17 x 29 inches
Frame not included

**Please note orders for the United States and Europe will be posted unmounted in a cardboard tube, and may incur local taxes on or before delivery** If you wish to ship to elsewhere in the world, please contact me directly.

I love painting the details of the scuffed corners and worn edges – the evidence that these books have been well loved, playing their parts in peoples life stories….

I feel privileged to be able to do what I love for a living, and to have others appreciate it. My book art work brings together my loves of painting, typography and books. I love to paint Bespoke Shelf Portrait paintings: clients gather their favourite editions together for me to paint. As I paint, a picture of their lives and loves grows across the canvas, across the shelf. Which books would you choose for your Shelf Portrait?

Find out more about my bespoke paintings here

Read More

Insect Ways on Summer Days….

Insect Ways On Summer Days…

 This week it’s all about bugs!

My youngest and I have just had a relaxing couple of days in West Wales, where we spent one happy half hour watching this little stunner go about it’s business…
We also saw an abundance of large bumble bees enjoying the flowers around our cosy little wooden shed near the banks of the River Teifi. The most beautiful location for a break, with a perfect balance of castles, ancient monuments, beaches and river swims 🙂
I hope you have all had a chance to be outside enjoying the sunshine and the bees.

This recently finished Shelf Portrait ‘Insect Ways On Summer Days’ was such fun to paint! All the beetles and bees made me smile, but I think the damsel-fly has to be my favourite. Big thanks go to Toby Cotterill a fellow studio holder at Northlight Art Studios for the inspiration of his book collection. Toby makes unique articulated jewellery inspired by the natural world and by arthropods in particular..

The original painting has already been snapped up, but ‘Insect Ways On Summer Days’ is newly available to order as a Limited Edition Print – just follow the button below to find out more….

Insect Print: Shop Listing

COMING UP SOON……….

Hebden Bridge Open Studios
9th,10th and 11th July

I will be joining a fabulous range of local artists and makers in opening my studio (within current guidelines). We are so looking forward to welcoming visitors into our studios once more 🙂
I will keep you informed of our Covid Policy nearer the time, but I imagine we will have a limit to a single-group in each studio at one time. There will be outdoor seating (and some refreshments!) in the yard to hang out in if you need to wait your turn !!

Belated New Year Greetings!

Just about got this newsletter out before the end of January!!

‘Sarah’s Room’ ©RooWaterhouseArt2019 12×16″ oil on canvas

2019 was a very busy year for Roo Waterhouse Art, with bespoke Shelf-Portrait paintings for clients in London, Derby, and around Yorkshire, including a couple of extra special ones commissioned through publishers at Penguin Random House (but I can’t yet tell you who for!). For more information about Bespoke Shelf Portrait take a look here. Great Shelf Portrait painting sales at the Affordable Art Fairs in Battersea and Hampstead last spring and summer, many thanks to Nicholas Bowlby Fine Art, also at Frivoli Gallery, Chiswick and The Yorkshire Gallery, Halifax. Very pleased to have some large scale ‘Belongings’ painting sales too, including one to the USA. 

Read More

Another Happy Family :-)


This Happy Family were very chuffed with their new Bespoke Shelf-Portrait oil painting. A lovely reminder of the books that have been most significant in their lives together.
I love the way it matches their wall!

Things Can Only Get Better

I was very busy in the run up to Christmas, completing five new bespoke Shelf-Portrait oil painting commissions.
Mission Accomplished!! So now that they have been delivered and given to their new owners, I can share them with you….
This one is called ‘Things Can Only Get Better’….

rswop18comm-sharonchapman-800
‘Things Can Only Get Better’ for Sharon C. rsw2018

In The Yorkshire Post!

A lovely feature on my work in this weekend’s Yorkshire Post magazine, thank you Sharon Dale.
IMG_20180106_100806796
… Although I certainly cannot claim to have ‘invented a whole new genre’, artists have been painting shelves of books since bookshelves were invented!!