Hawthorn Cottage Industry
Christina's paintings provide the source for our prints and greetings cards which we print and assemble at our home in Bardon Mill, Northumberland. We both work on producing and selling the cards through a number of shops and galleries. We do everything in card-making except make our own card and therefore the job is highly labour intensive. We print, cut out, back with adhesive, mount, fold, label and package. Even the label is designed and printed by us. Each image is cut out with a scalpel and is carefully arranged on the card by eye. Christina refers to making cards as her 'factory job'. She prefers to fold and package the cards whilst watching television.
Our collaboration works best when we have thought things through together properly. Our business meetings take place on walks around our village, or at places like Talkin Tarn (see below). It really helps to focus the mind.
Painting Al Fresco
Almost all of Christina's painting is completed at the location, from life. We make multiple trips to enable her to finish a painting. For this work we have had a variety of vehicles, including a VW Caravelle, which had a fold down seat for sleeping on. With a folding table and plenty of sockets to plug in my laptop and kettle, we could both work outdoors. We used this to travel all over the North of England, including Northumberland, Cumbria, Tees Valley and North Yorkshire. We have been as far as Northern France around Amiens as well as down through Southern England and up to the Scottish Borders. Now we have an old Daihatsu, which does not mind paint splashes, can cross muddy fields and cope with all weathers, but it has no room for sleeping in.
If the weather is fine Christina paints beside the van or in a field. If it is raining Christina either wears a hat or works inside the van.
Christina also works in our garden under a gazebo I made. She is sheltered a bit from the Northumberland sun. From here and from the house, she has a panoramic view of the South Tyne Valley. In the garden I grow flowers which can also end up in the landscape paintings.
Recently, we have turned one of the bedrooms into a studio for Christina to paint in. At last she has somewhere to leave canvases to dry and to experiment with new ideas, before going out to paint. The room also has a lovely view along the valley across to Allen Banks and in the other direction towards the Pennine hills. Sometimes it seems as if the whole house is turned over to our work, especially when we have open studios events. For this reason we are looking to buy a house with space to build a studio in the garden. We would both like to get up and go out to work. On the other hand, we feel very fortunate to enjoy what we have here.