Artist captures North Yorkshire off the beaten track

HESTER Cox’s striking, atmospheric prints capture a world off the beaten track, where birds nest and wild animals, hidden from sight, breed and nurture their young.

Where some of us may have been lucky enough to catch a fleeting glimpse of a hare, fox or deer as it bolts away from human contact, Hester has been seeking out and observing these wary, reclusive creatures for more than 20 years.

A keen fell runner, she likes to explore those parts of North Yorkshire, in the Dales and the Moors, which vehicles can’t reach.

“Running on hills and through woods, you cover big distances and get to places you don’t get to by car. I see all sorts of animals in the wild, and nesting birds like oystercatchers, curlews and skylarks. I recently saw sandpipers nesting by the river.

“It is being in this natural landscape, the plants and wildlife that inhabit it and the stories, myths and symbolism associated with them that inspires me,” she says.

From her photographs and sketches, she creates designs on collagraph plates which she hand inks and prints, often in layers, to achieve the rich colours and textures that make her work so distinctive, on her etching press in her garden studio at home.

Her best-selling prints, which sell all over the world including to collectors in Australia, Tokyo, the States and Canada, include one of a lone fox, stealthily making its way through a forest, and a blackbird in brambles with a wild raspberry in its beak.

She usually makes up to 50 limited edition copies of each: “It’s hard to know what will grab people’s imagination, but those two prints just sold out straight away,” says Hester, who counts racing driver Nigel Mansell among her better known clients.

When she opens the door to her small, nondescript looking terraced house near Hawes, which she has just moved into this summer, she is the first to admit that, from the front: “It doesn’t look like anything special.”

But, tardis-like, her new home opens out to reveal a spacious, light-filled extension with French doors leading onto a garden with stunning views of Pen-y-ghent, one of Yorkshire’s famous Three Peaks.

It’s an outlook she loves: “Of all the Three Peaks, this has always been my favourite. It has such a distinctive shape and the views from the top are fantastic.”

Hester’s studio is in a converted shed, just a few feet away from her kitchen. With a white painted wood interior and a small cast iron stove in the corner, it has a Scandinavian feel, which may reflect the fact Hester has enjoyed an artist’s residency at a printmaking studio in Algarden, Sweden.

Having recently returned from a working trip, she enthuses about the large, cutting edge equipment she has access to there: “It’s on the edge of open countryside, with beautiful forests, full of wonderful imagery. I run every day when I’m there.”

There are new prints hanging to dry on pegs from the studio ceiling and displays of birds’ egg and skull collections, along with pebbles and shells and colourful pieces of broken china all provide inspiration.

She is constantly developing her work, pushing boundaries and experimenting with new techniques: “I use texture glues, collage, bits of fabric, dried leaves, plant material, bits of compost – you can print from pretty much anything. You’re only limited by your imagination.”

After sealing her plate with varnish, she inks it and puts it through the press. The image is revealed for the first time when she peels the paper: “That is such a compelling moment.”

She has also been experimenting with photopolymer prints, using light sensitive, flexible steel plates which have been exposed to the sun, or in a special exposure unit, and then developed using water: “It’s a process I really like. I have been making transparencies using my monotype techniques. Normally you only get one print but when I combine it with photopolymer, I can make a plate that I can print repeatedly. It means that I can use looser and more painterly marks and create slightly more abstract images, capturing the atmosphere of the landscape in different weather conditions.”

She would like to create large scale works one day: “Trying new things keeps me fresh.”

Originally from Reading, Hester’s zoologist mother encouraged her love of the great outdoors with regular nature rambles. She went on to study illustration at Harrow School of Art and first got involved in print making after being commissioned to produce a series of lino cut designs for Friends of the Earth: “I instantly loved print,” she says.

Her first etching press, which she still uses, sits in the centre of her studio today. She bought for £1,200 the year after leaving college, having worked in a shop to save up for it.

At first, she produced her prints – which now fetch up to £400 unframed – in her spare time, working at the Northern School of Contemporary Dance library in Leeds to fund her art. Soon she was selling work through galleries all over the country, including Masham, and started to build up a following.

But after splitting up from her boyfriend Hester, now 43, decided she needed a complete break and set off on an adventurous one-and-a-half year solo trip around the world, partly funded by her art work.

Staying in a series of hostels, yurts and bamboo huts, she travelled through Russia, China, Tibet, Vietnam, Cambodia and Thailand, then headed to Mexico and South America, where she taught English at a school in Peru.

Although she had taken notebooks and sketchpads and had her camera with her, she didn’t produce much art while she was there: “I was too busy seeing things, doing things and meeting people,” she says.

It was meeting another printmaker, working in a local art school in Mexico that inspired her to return to the UK: “He let me work in his studio and I made a decision. I wanted to get back to doing my own work.”

She was 32 when she came back to England: “It was quite tricky, I didn’t have anywhere to live.” Eventually a friend told her about a small bedsit which was available in Leeds: “There was just enough space for my press, so for six months I lived, ate, worked and slept in one room.”

She produced a series of prints based on her travels and decided she would commit to her art, along with running creative workshops, full time: “I thought I would give myself three years.”

But she didn’t want to live in Leeds and eventually found a house to rent in Masham, in a landscape she loved: “I used to go across to Masham to deliver work and the area always inspired me. Josie, the gallery owner has been very supportive and even helped me find the house.”

“It was a relief to be out of the city, in such a beautiful area.”

She submerged herself in the landscape and became fascinated by the migration patterns of curlews, which come from the Ireland and the west coast to breed in Nidderdale: “I used to cycle to Pateley Bridge and run on the moor.”

As artist-in-residence at Nidderdale Museum in 2010, she produced a series of prints based on the curlew, using various textures and contours to capture their flight patterns and nesting sites: “They are such an evocative bird, I love the call they make.”

She enjoys working on projects which push her in different directions, such as the exhibition she was asked to produce to illustrate the Vale of York Viking Hoard treasure trove of gold and silver jewellery and coins, on show at the Mercer Gallery in Harrogate three years ago.

It took her out of her comfort zone: “That really pushed my print making. It was such a different subject matter and made me think in a totally different way.”

In a more recent project, called New Ground, which will be exhibited in November, she reflects on the natural landscape of the North York Moors National Park, around Sutton Bank, Gormire Lake and Hood Hill, where she has been running in all weathers.

As well as her prints, she is collaborating with photographer Paul Harris on a film showing her running and back in her studio producing the work: “I follow a particular route which I have been revisiting, capturing the changes in the seasons over a year.”

Running, she says, is also good for her mind: “As well as seeing things that trigger off designs, I can work out print making conundrums and turn over problems in my head.

“Working in this field is so insecure, you are on your own so much and have to keep on top of the stress and worries about when the next cheque is coming in. But being out in the open air makes me feel good and keeps me sane.

“There is nothing like a crisp winter run to make you feel part of the human race.”

Hester will be exhibiting at:

The Way Through the Woods, The Gallery, Masham
13th September - 2nd November 2014
www.mashamgallery.co.uk

Animal Kingdom
Blue Tree gallery, York
27th September – 8th November
Tel: 01904 620660

New Ground
Inspired By...Gallery, Danby
20th November 2014 - 25th January 2015
www.northyorkmoors.org.uk/inspiredby

Hester runs workshops for children and adults both privately and for ArtisOn Ltd., North Yorkshire County Council, Rural Arts North Yorkshire and the Woodland Trust. Website: www.hestercox.com