Local artists to open studios for unique look behind the scenes

Their work includes sculpture, painting and hand-made prints.

Haydn Morris, Debby Akam and Gary Power will be open every day from May 18 to May 26, from 10am-5pm.

Haydn specialises in painting the Cumbrian landscape, working from his studio near the Queen’s Head, Tirril.

His favourite subjects include the Lakeland Fells in all their moods, and traditional buildings in their natural environment.

Haydn Morris in his Tirril studio (Image: Supplied)He works mainly in oils and watercolours – expressing his feeling for the place and the atmosphere.

Paintings start out in the field and larger ones are completed in his studio – where you can see sketch books and work in progress, as well as a great selection of completed works.

He exhibits in local art galleries and the Friends of the Ullswater Way Virtual Gallery.

Some of Debby’s paintings relate to Chromarimba, an artwork she and Gary made in India during a recent artists’ residency.

Using local brightly coloured fabric, the work was designed to respond to the natural environment, changing constantly with the breeze and position of the sun. Visitors will be able to see this artwork specially reassembled for the Open Studio.

“We each had to bring three artworks for a group exhibition, and were on site most of the time, to meet the visitors and deliver art workshops,” said Debby.

“For a month we had the wonderful experience of living as a community of artists, working together outdoors in the garden, making new friends and sharing skills and ideas.”

Debby has just taken part in Printfest 2024 in Ulverston where she showed work inspired by the trip to India. She exhibited in the Royal Academy Summer Exhibition in London, 2023.

In India, Gary Power made paintings inspired by the garden and made a new sculpture using local cooking utensils which he will be showing alongside his third series of Tintotem sculptures.

Gary and local artist Kumaran painting outside in Kerala (Image: Supplied)Stacked upcycled painted tin cans have now been combined with stainless steel domestic items such as bowls, teapots, pots and pans and colanders to investigate concave and convex forms and how they interact with space, light and shadow.

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Studio visitors are invited to look into brightly mirrored surfaces that distort space, or peer into dark tunnelled corridors and voids that highlight the different physical, psychological, and emotional experience of 3- dimensional space.

Last year Gary exhibited a Tintotem sculpture in the Royal Scottish Academy in Edinburgh for a second time.