Brightwater Gallery, Alnwick, Northumberland
A couple of weeks ago we travelled to the North East to drop off a collection of my copper foil framed original paintings at Brightwater Gallery, a gorgeous gallery located in the heart of Alnwick and only a short walk from Alnwick Castle. When you step inside the gallery, you’re met with a wonderful celebration of colour in a very broad selection of pieces of art, many of which have a strong wildlife or sealife feel. From paintings to glass, ceramics, mixed media and metalwork, every visitor is sure to find something to want to take away!
For Brightwater Gallery, I have provided a selection of hanging and standing pieces and of different sizes. Paintings include a kingfisher, curlew, nuthatch, oystercatcher, red squirrel and puffins amongst others! Most are painted on vintage railway ephemera or ‘railwayana’, one piece on a map and the smallest pieces (eggs and ladybirds) are painted on old railway tickets. Some of the pieces have a North East or Southern Scotland feel. One of the railway pieces is even handwritten as ‘to Alnwick,’ so very appropriate for Brightwater Gallery!
As always with my work, I am passionate about making by hand using British made materials where I can. I use the traditional copper foiling method, hand soldering and copper finishing each frame. Each base is cut, hand sanded and beeswax polished in my studio from reclaimed oak.
Brightwater Gallery, 10 Narrowgate, Alnwick NE66 1JG
The Trip
I hadn’t visited Northumberland before despite being a Northerner - the closest I have got is travelling up to Edinburgh through the county for several years whilst at university. It is a spectacular county to travel through by train but even better to explore the various historic villages and towns by car armed with a history book!
We had just visited ‘our’ sea (at Grange Over Sands on the western side of the country) so it was a strange feeling to visit the sea on the opposite side of the country the very next day. It was the most beautiful day and we were met with a much more advanced autumn to the one on the west coast. Trees were a sea of orange and yellow and a lovely fresh clear light which made for a great day for the camera.
Once we had explored Alnwick, we headed across to the coast to Alnmouth to try and catch a selection of seabirds. I wasn’t disappointed! We caught a collection of waders including two of my absolute favourites, the curlew and the little egret, in the mouth of the River Aln. A bridge spanning the water enabled us to get great video of a curlew chatting away whilst searching for tasty morsels.
Heading down in a southerly direction, we happened upon Warkworth Castle which, like most castles in Northumberland has a particularly dramatic history. It sits very impressively on a large mound; a feat of medieval architecture.
We finished our tour of Northumberland with the fishing town of Amble. It was great to see a working fishing port landing plenty of fish. We couldn’t resist sampling the local langoustines and meet the hoards of starlings, the local opportunists who were waiting for the fishing boats to come in. It’s a lovely little port, quiet, sensible approaches to parking and a great walk round the harbour.
A lovely trip and definitely lots to explore in future!
