Katharine Holmes – Landscape Paintings & Ink Drawings

Paintings and Ink Drawings by Katharine Holmes.
Our spring exhibition can be viewed here on the Gavagan Art website, and also at Low Wood Bay Windermere.
In Windermere there is also a display case exhibition of ceramics and small scale paintings by Anna Adams (1926 – 2011)
These two artists, each inspired by the natural landscape of North Yorkshire. Katharine’s main focus is Malhamdale, while Anna was based in Horton -in – Ribblesdale.

Katharine Holmes (b. 1962) is best known for her paintings and drawings of her native Yorkshire landscape. She studied Fine Art at the University of Newcastle – upon – Tyne, then worked in galleries in Kendal and Glasgow before returning to live in Malham in the Yorkshire Dales. The house, High Barn Cottage, in Malham, North Yorkshire, where Katharine returned to, had been home to her mother Philippa, and grandmother Constance Pearson, both artists.

Katharine has been invited to exhibit her work in numerous exhibitions since the mid 1990s, and has worked in Japan, Greece, Kenya, New England, Italy and throughout the British Isles.

Two of the larger works in the current exhibition celebrate the geology and drama of the limestone landscape.

The two heavily textured paintings with thick impasto paint are the largest works in the exhibition: Limestone Waterfall in Full Spate and Limestone and Rain. They are a response to the dramatic cliffs of Gordale Scar and Malham Cove, close to Katharine’s home.

Open moorland and vast skies are to be found in a number of works.  A Late Summer Evening – on Boss Moor is one such painting.

This large work, a watercolour with acrylic, ink and pastel, is a winter view of the sweeping vast moorland of Boss Moor.

Katharine has chosen to use ink and watercolour on a small number of works to capture  the ever changing landscape of upper Wharfedale.

My paintings are often worked both inside, in the studio, and outside, in the landscape. As I work, the painting takes on a life of its own, evolving into an object with its own unique character.

Norman Adams RA who was Professor of Painting at the University of Newcastle-upon-Tyne, commented on Katharine’s work: 

It is not so much that Katharine Holmes makes statements about her native landscape as that she is constantly questioning and trying to discover its essence.

Norman and his wife Anna Adams, were closely connected with the Yorkshire Dales.

There is an exhibition in the Low Wood display case of Anna’s ceramics and watercolours, running alongside Katharine’s exhibition. A watercolour painting by Norman, of Trees at Douk Ghyll, Horton in Ribblesdale is included in the exhibition.