Celebrating nature, landscapes and connections with the poetry of John Clare, Found in the Fields is an exhibition of original prints and paintings by Carry Akroyd.
Opening times
8 September to 20 October 2024
Open Sunday to Friday, 10am to 4pm, closed Saturdays.
Free Admission
John Clare found his inspiration out of doors, and two centuries later his poetry inspired images by Carry Akroyd. This series, Found in the Fields, was launched at the Royal Botanic Gardens Edinburgh for the 2011 Festival, and has toured to many venues since, with new works added along the way.
The exhibition also includes Carry’s linocut illustrations for three books of John Clare’s poetry. Poems by Clare are displayed alongside the images: a perfect introduction for anyone not yet familiar with the delight of his work.
Carry lives in rural Northamptonshire, a few miles from where she grew up, but her interest in landscape takes her across England, Scotland and Wales. Birds she notices fly into her landscape images. The range of Carry’s work is reproduced in her own books: “‘natures powers & spells’, Landscape Change, John Clare and Me”, and “Found in the Fields”.
Her work has been used on various book covers, and she is the series jacket artist for Bloomsbury’s British Wildlife Collection. She illustrates the Bird of the Month column in The Oldie magazine. Carry is a member of the Society of Wildlife Artists and shows with them in London each year.
Carry’s most favoured printmaking technique is serigraphy (screenprinting), but employing a very low-tech approach. A lot of time is spent with scissors or scalpel, creating cut-paper stencils to control where each layer of ink passes through the screen. Where the layers of ink overlap they create new colours, and the image is invented during the process of being made, reacting to how the image develops. Colour, shape and composition are her main focus, all used to try to recapture the experience of a place, including the birds and botany observed.
Carry Akroyd: Found in the Fields has been organised and funded by the Friends of the Heseltine Gallery.