Month: June 2023

Richmond Castle

arch
negative

On our Ossett Grammar School school trip in the summer of 1965 we visited Richmond Castle. This is the same film as the Reeth photographs that I posted yesterday and, as you can see (left), the negatives are equally badly scratched, spotted and, in places, solarised.

I think that this works well for the Norman arch (above) but as a change from the daguerreotype effect that I went for yesterday, I decided the clean up the remaining images using the spot healing brush in Photoshop.

I soon realised that using the mouse on my iMac was impractical so, after boosting the contrast in the desktop version of Photoshop, I transferred the photographs to the iPad.

wall of Richmond Castle
Photoshop for the iPad
The iPad version of Photoshop, using an Apple Pencil, Sketchboard Pro, a PenTips Magnetic Matte Screenprotector and a PenTips Drawing Glove.

Touching up the images using an Apple Pencil in the iPad version of Photoshop makes it so much easier.

I air-dropped the image back to the desktop version to colourise it, using the Photoshop Neural Filters.

Plaque to Robert Baden Powell, found of the Scouts movement.

A Walk in Swaledale, 1965

My thanks to James Alderson and Farming Lass on Instagram for identifying yesterday’s lime lorry incident from summer 1965 as being on the Hurst road at the Reeth end of Swaledale. I’m guessing that the cottages and lead smelting chimney are at Hurst or nearby.

I’ve gone with the daguerreotype vibe for this gallery of colourised photographs from our walk, which include my friend Stef making friends with a Dales pony.

In addition to the scratches and blobs my inept film development has also resulted in some solarisation. The shot of our party negotiating an area of mining spoil (possibly above Langthwaite?) would have made a good cover for an Alan Garner novel.

Swaledale Lime Lorry, 1965

lime lorry

Summer 1965 and there’s been a delay in a delivery of lime in Swaledale. Perhaps you recognise the delivery man or the guys he’s talking to – the local farmer perhaps?

This colourised image is from one of my badly developed black and white negatives from 1965. There are dozens from a school trip of Richmond Castle, which Iooks pretty much the same today, so it’s the few which feature vehicles that particularly interest me.

A Thank you to the Hospice

Hospice staff card

From the Prince of Wales Hospice website, pwh.org.uk:

Local illustrator gives a bespoke new design to our thank you cards

new cards

Thursday, 22 June 2023

We first came across Richard Bell’s artistic talent when he sent in a hand drawn illustrated card, thanking staff for the care provided to his brother in law, John. The card was an illustration about some of the hospice team Richard and his wife, Barbara met when they visited John in our Hospice. The card also included a drawing about one of John’s great moments in the Hospice, when he was visited by two star players of Featherstone Rovers on the ward.

Hospice card
early rough
Early rough

Richard wrote: “Thank you for all that you did for John and all that you did to make us feel welcome – we’re so grateful.”

We were blown away by the level of detail Richard had used in his illustrations and we asked Richard if he wanted to design our new thank you cards. Fortunately, he kindly agreed to illustrate them for us and what a fantastic job he has done!

My rough for the staff card
Later rough

One of the new designs show a roundup of hospice staff, Richard explained: “I was aiming for a fairly generic version of the hospice staff but inevitably the individual characters keep asserting themselves.” The other thank you card design shows beautifully the Hospice building, gardens and surrounding area.
Emma Dunnill, Legacy and In Memory Fundraiser said: “Richard’s attention to detail is fantastic and we think our supporters will love the bespoke designs. We can’t wait to start sending out these well-deserved thank you cards.”

You can see more of Richard’s work on his website http://wildyorkshire.blog/ where he has also shared illustrations of the Hospice gardens from his visits.

article

Link

The Prince of Wales Hospice, Pontefract

John meets Featherstone Rovers: my original thank you card to the Hospice

The View from the Car Park

Wakefield from the Ridings Centre car park

My favourite view from Wakefield’s Riding Centre multistorey?

  • To the south, to what Lawrence Butler called the ‘upturned pudding-basin’ of Sandal Castle motte?
  • To the south-west to the Emley Moor transmitter on the edge of the South Pennines?
  • Or looking back across the precinct towards the peregrine eyrie on the tower of Wakefield Cathedral?

Since the Hannah Starkey show at the Hepworth, the view that I always park facing is the one of the flats on Kirkgate.

In Starkey’s thoughtfully stage-managed take on this scene, she gives Wakefield an aura of Indie movie sophistication (which it has, especially on a morning like today’s). One of her characters leans on the parapet, like a split-hair-dyed Rapunzel, looking out over the cloud-capped towers of Wakefield.

Wood Pigeons

spurge and woodland sketches

These sketches from the hospital and the one of the wood were drawn with one of my regular fountain pens, the TWSBI Eco T.

pigeons sketches

But I’ve gone back to a fibre tip for these wood pigeons and sparrows in the back garden.

pigeons and art bag

These were drawn with a Mitsubishi uni pin 0.3 fine line, which has water and fade proof pigment ink.

pigeon, sparrow and foxglove

Cat’s-ear

Cat’s-ear, Hypochaeris radicata, flowering and going to seed on the front lawn, which I left untrimmed during ‘No Mow May’ but which is now due for strimming.

Longest Day

pigeons and plants

I find a quiet bench by St James’ Hospital’s historic workhouse chapel and settle down to draw the cherry tree but get distracted as two town pigeons bustle past me inspecting the turf.

stone, squirrel, birch and crow

A crow chases a scrawny-tailed squirrel across pedestrian crossing, up a couple of steps and behind a low wall towards birches.

On the artfully boulder-strewn roundabout a blackbird gathers beak-fulls of worms. After a long dry spell, yesterday’s persistent rain must have brought them to the surface again.

pigeon, crow and stone block

The grand Victorian architecture around the hospital attracts me but I prefer to draw something organic. There was a breeze blowing around the cherry tree leaves so, returning after a break, I draw its trunk and the sandstone block next to it.

crow and cat's ear

One of the crows finds an acorn-sized brown object, which immediately interests a second crow which follows it around until the item is either eaten or discarded.

Cat’s ear, self-heal, white clover and daisy grow on the lawn, although the much larger ox-eye daisy, or marguerite, that I drew was in a flower border, alongside berginia.

workhouse chapel

We have a brief shower in the afternoon, so I head for the church. The multi-coloured round-topped arch looks more byzantine than romanesque to me. There’s another similar arch above it with a balcony overlooking the chancel. As this was a workhouse chapel, I did wonder if anyone with an infectious disease would be put up there but it’s probably more likely that it was originally an organ loft.