Sheffield Christmas Cards
I was both surprised and delighted by the response to the edition of Sheffield Christmas I published last year, after I found that Fine Art cards celebrating the city were in short supply; so much so that I have extended the range with 3 new designs depicting glorious snow-bound Sheffield (and one of Chatsworth for good measure). With over 3500 cards in print this year available around the city (or direct from me; price £1.50 each plus p and p if applicable) it’s nice to provide an opportunity for Sheffield folk and visitors to the city to send cards to family and friends outside Sheffield or overseas. The full range is shown here.
Millennium Gardens
Surrey Street
Whirlow Hall Farm
Chatsworth in Winter
St Paul’s Gardens
Snow comes to Sheffield
Sheffield University
Sheffield Christmas Markets
Interestingly, other requests for Christmas cards have also arrived this year; here’s one I designed and had printed for the Dore Village Society in Sheffield. The starting point was a black and white photograph of the High Street on a drab (snow-less, car-less and duck-less) day, dated around 1925. Alternative watercolour sketches were prepared before arriving at the final design.
The second half of the year was notable for the variety of its commissioned work, beginning with a large portrait of a family which was unusual on several fronts; the subjects were fictitious, the piece being required for a BBC mini TV series shot in Sheffield and airing in January; the film company wanted an oil painting or oil effect (watercolour being my main medium and time being short I used a mix of watercolour and gouache for body, finished with a watercolour varnish courtesy of Winsor and Newton); the children in the family were “backdated” to age the painting, using images from their real family albums which I spliced into the composition in period costume; and to round things off, the male lead was changed at the last moment, which all added up to a 60 hour continuous stint on my part in order to meet the completion deadline.
September brought Art in the Gardens. I showed in one of the pavilions and demonstrated at the easel several times over the weekend, recording the event in a series of watercolours which even found their way onto U Tube. Great fun!
November found me taking occupation of the Exhibition Unit on Sheffield’s Pinstone Street, opposite Debenhams, which generated a lot of contacts and numerous orders for prints, in particular the “Surrey Street” print, which, like the rest of the Sheffield Christmas card designs, is available as a signed limited edition (Surrey St is £125 framed and the other prints are £95 framed)
Two exhibitions in October made for a hectic month; the “Ten Artists” at Baslow proved as popular as ever with buyers and raised a healthy five figure sum for Sheffield Samaritans. I managed to squeeze in a caricature of local vintner John Mitchell, commissioned by his staff as a 60th birthday present.
The year is closing with the latest in a series of “house portraits”. This one (shown below) is a montage of images of a characterful stone-built property in the picturesque Derbyshire village of Baslow
2012 is looking equally varied, with a very interesting book illustration project emerging, a number of house portraits, life class sessions as part of the Millennium gallery’s spring programme and a series of paintings already under way requested by several retailers, celebrating Sheffield in its summer, rather than its winter coat, which will be available as greetings cards and limited edition prints. Here’s a typical example.(Above left)
