BOLD, bright paintings are the feature of a new spring exhibition for Ryedale Folk Museum’s art gallery

Earthworks, is a display of large paintings by Yorkshire artist Simon Crawford

This exhibition explores the Yorkshire and British countryside and the featured paintings are inspired by Simon’s walks with his dog, through landscapes and places he loves.

Simon has produced these paintings to reflect his feelings about nature, gathered and formed as he roams across fields, through woods and by rivers.

He said: “I may take photographs or make small drawings as I go along, but these paintings are more to do with feelings as one meanders through the landscape. William Blake saw Angels in Peckham Rye. They exist in Yorkshire too – in trees and the earth. It is difficult to ignore the Romantics – especially Samuel Palmer, but also contemporary artists like Michael Porter, Christopher Le Brun and Ian McKeever - these artists get under the skin and help to experience a place and register and recalibrate one’s own thoughts and feelings.”

Simon added: “The paintings are trying hard to get across the sense of smooth bark, or boggy heath, dryness and brittle fragments, and a grand sweep of the elements. Through it all I try and express something about me.”

The Cleveland Way is one of Simon’s paintings to feature in the exhibition and Simon says it is a route which has often inspired him to paint new works. “The Cleveland Way provides me with a landscape rich with hollows, undulations and colour. They shift in appearance, but I have a relationship with the route which is like a constant and much-loved friend. I am pleased that I can show this painting at a location in the North York Moors, as this year the Cleveland Way marks its own fiftieth anniversary.”

Jennifer Smith, Museum Director, said: “Simon Crawford was recently featured in the Museum’s first-ever open art show. I am now excited to see his solo show in the gallery. The paintings are strong, powerful and colourful. They convey Simon’s personal response to landscapes and provide an exciting interpretation of Yorkshire scenes and places.”

The exhibition is open daily from 10am – 5pm until Sunday, May 19 and is free to visit.