Day 4

Day 5

Day 1

“Lots of interest and enquiries as I get the painting under way, including visits from several signalmen to advise exactly where I should stick the levers… for authenticity’s sake. People seem really interested in the ideas, but so far no orders for prints.”

Day 2

While these two classic A4s race up and down the line, Chris is trying to paint them in time for the end of the gala. The picture combines two of Chris’s most popular railway subjects – the elegant A4 streamliner and “all those bloody levers” (his words, not mine!) in a signal box, this time at Grosmont.

Each day he’s posting a picture outside the studio of that day’s work so visitors can watch this locomotive race unfold infront of them. I’ll try to keep up with posts of his progress on the website… so watch this space.

Although the work is a commission, prints will be available in all the usual sizes.

Meanwhile the steady flow of very positive interest in storm paintings continues. But above all, Chris’s favourite sale so far is an original sold on-line at midnight to a man in Kabul… can’t imagine why he didn’t think of selling them like that before!

I’m the one on the left, Sarah Ware. I will continue to organise exhibitions and events, and help Nick keep the website and online shop up-to-date. You’ll continue to see me around the studio from time to time.

And on the right, we welcome Sarah Roberts to the team. Sarah will manage much of the day-to-day running of the business and you’ll see her in the Levisham studio on Thursdays, freeing Chris up to get on with the all-important job of painting.

Sarah replaces Linzi, who has taken up a new and exciting challenge helping to set up and run Lavenders in Thornton-le-Dale. We wish her every success.

Linzi’s parting gift was helping me to persuade Chris that he needs a day off once a week. So this year the studio will be shut on Wednesdays while Chris recharges his batteries and catches up with life beyond the paintbrush. I’m sure I can find some DIY around the home… mmm… let me see…

So what next?

We are getting ready up for the NYMR Spring Steam Gala 4-7 and 11-13 May. If you are planning a trip on the railway, why not start and finish your journey at Levisham? Not only is the parking free, but it will give you time to visit Chris in his studio and browse at leisure. The new range of Chris’s railway pictures will be available.

Chris is currently proofing the newest painting, Grosmont Giant, so it will soon be available as a print in the online shop… along with Battling Through, which proved to be very popular as an original at the exhibition.

One big change this year is that the studio will be shut on Wednesdays. So if you are planning a visit, please bear this in mind. As nagging wife, I have tried to persuade Chris that even he deserves one day off a week. He’s not convinced. We’ll try it for this season and see who’s right!
Another big change is that we now have our own credit card machine in the studio. Payment couldn’t be easier! We can also take credit and debit card details over the phone, in addition to PayPal and credit cards in the online shop. Cheques are still welcome.

More later about plans for future exhibitions… we’re hoping to be in the New Forest this summer and have already booked Richmond Station for a fortnight in June 2013.

In the meantime, do keep following these blogs and sending us your comments, all gratefully received.

The article heralds the Virtual Exhibition which we’ve just added to the website… a catalogue of all the exhibition works to view online, for those of you who can’t make it to the exhibition itself on Pickering Station.

Chris will be at the exhibition until Sunday, then returning to his Levisham Station studio next week.

It started last Sunday with Chris being interviewed by Cal Stockbridge for the new Pickering Town blog… do click on the link to see the video, filmed and edited by Gareth Jenkins, who also runs the Kirkbymoorside Town blog.

Setting up the exhibition has been a race against time and the elements… we’ve had everything from driving wind and rain, to a day of snow and powercuts at Levisham. Thankfully, with the help of good and hard-working friends Jim, John and Ann, we managed to transport and hang all the paintings at Pickering without any getting a drenching! Chris finished the final painting on Tuesday night, and we hung it just in time for the opening on Wednesday morning.

Of all the exhibitions we have hung at Pickering, this has more new originals than ever before… beautifully framed by Brent and Linzi at the Stables Gallery, who worked so hard to meet the deadline. The space and light of the Learning Centre at Pickering Station shows them off really well… the new railway pictures as well as the landscapes and seascapes.

We’re really pleased that six of the originals have sold already, so if you haven’t seen them yet then do come along before next Sunday (15th April). Chris is at the exhibition every day talking to new visitors and enjoying catching up with regulars. Browsers are welcome too… and there are lots of prints available for those not in the market for originals.

Thanks for all the comments and messages of support we’ve received over the last few weeks – it is very encouraging for Chris at the start of the season. We hope to see many of you at the exhibition and the studio now the trains are running again.

In the meantime… Happy Easter!

“There are two main themes running through this month’s magazine – transport and art,” writes editor Paul Jackson. “And one of our stories features both topics as we meet an artist who has a dream job with the North Yorkshire Moors Railway. Denis Healey’s nephew reveals some of his uncle’s paintings and we bring you news of a unique exhibition of Dalesman artwork.”

Do pick up a copy in the newsagents… or come a see for yourself at Chris’s exhibition at Pickering Station which opens this Wednesday and runs all through the Easter until Sunday 15th.

Tyneside Tank
Rust and steam beneath a clear North Eastern sky – a local tank engine brings the stopping train into Jarrow station.

Britannia
Britannia locos worked all round the country in the 1950s.  Here Geoffrey Chaucer powers away from Liverpool Street as the N7 station pilot looks on.

These will be on show for the first time at Chris’s Spring Exhibition opening next week at Pickering Station. Do come along… you’ll be able to see (and buy!) railway originals of Ribblehead and Manston & Wadebridge and Chris’s latest work-in-progress – the 9F at Grosmont.

Hope to see you there!

Do put the dates and venue in your diaries… Wednesday 4 to Sunday 15 April at Pickering Station, in the exhibition space at the Learning Centre on Platform 2 (facing the main entrance to the station).

While the exhibition is on, the rest of the team will open the Levisham studio at weekends and bank holidays over Easter. So do drop in to say hello if you are passing through – the Weighbridge Tea Hut will be also open for refreshments and cheery smiles!