Joy - Spring Curated Exhibition

What brings you joy? In this specially curated exhibition, up to nine local artists show us what joy means to them, and hope to uplift visitors with their interpretations across a range of mediums. Visit our Artisan Gallery and absorb the joyful mood created by our artists.

Make an entry into our 'Box of Joy' to tell us what brings you joy - the most uplifting answer judged at the end of the exhibition will win a voucher for The Station Shop and two free tickets to The Station Cinema.

Exhibiting Artists:

Artwyse Designs (Jen Wyse)

During my childhood, my father had a significant influence on my life. As a graphic designer, he encouraged me to embrace my creativity by painting and drawing. His support inspired me to dream of becoming an artist when I grew up, leading me to study Fine Art Painting at Bristol Polytechnic.

Connecting to nature through my art has always been such an uplifting experience, which I can thoroughly recommend. It significantly reduces stress and supports my mental health. I have found this expression of creative energy particularly valuable during the darkest times of my life, especially after losing our beautiful son in recent years. The joy that both my art and nature have provided has been my motivation and, at times, my reason for living and helping me navigate through such difficult periods.

Since 2023 I have been selling my work at the Richmond Indoor Market, where you will find me four days a week, and at various other art and craft events in the area. I hope you enjoy my art and designs, in which I am celebrating the wonder of nature and creativity.

The Painted Card (Sandra Johnston)

‘Welcome to my painted world, one full of words in rhyme, it is a world where I escape when I can find the time. It helps to ease my troubled soul when I’m a little blue, for when I paint or write my words, it helps to guide me through.’

My name is Sandra and i am a self-taught illustration artist. After watching my Dad Eric lose his 3 year battle with a brain tumour, i found myself in a very dark place when guilt and sorrow arrived. During that time, I found a battered old tin of watercolour paints & it sparked something within me. Very slowly I started my un-planned healing creative path, and creativity has now become my full-time job. As I became braver, I started to illustrate in acrylics on household objects, furniture, books and mor, always including positive & honest words. Being creative not only brings me unbelievable Joy, it has also brought me to a place where I was born to be. I hope my work, & my story, brings Joy to your day…

Collaborative Art (Jen Hardy and Malcolm Noble)

JOY - Means being outdoors in the North Yorkshire landscape which we love and where we feel most inspired by the wonders of nature and the changing seasons.

Using an early alternative photographic process, called making 'Cyanotypes or Blueprints', which dates back to the 1800's, Jean and Malcolm record and print images, using real botanical specimens and other gorgeous treasures, inspired by their walks with their dog in the beautiful North Yorkshire countryside. They then sometimes add a stunning contemporary mixed media twist to their images by incorporating extra colours or gold highlights to the originals.

Tiffany Prescott

Tiffany, a skilled artist and qualified teacher based in Eaglescliffe, creates slipware garden décor and functional pottery that embodies the joy and vibrancy of nature, particularly through her whimsical piece, Smiling Sunshine. With a background in promoting mental health, she believes that working with clay fosters well-being and happiness. Originally from Southern California and now settled in the North East for 30 years, Tiffany finds inspiration in the local landscape, the sea, and her community, often reminiscing about the brightness and warmth of the sun. Her Smiling Sunshine artwork, adorned with warm colors and a playful smile, symbolizes joy and the positive energy that the sun brings, reflecting its historical significance as a source of light and growth.

Can you find joy? The word joy is hidden, ready to find in every sunshine!

Gosha Gibek

As an artist with synaesthesia, I experience the world in vibrant colours - each hue carrying emotion, energy, and movement. These colours bring me joy, and I see it as my mission to share this joy through my work. My paintings burst with life, transforming emotions into bold, dynamic compositions that invite the viewer into a world of colour-infused happiness. In a time when the world can feel grey, my goal is simple: to fill it with colours, to uplift, to inspire, and to spread the pure, unfiltered joy that colour brings.

Tony Erskine

After graduating from Newcastle College of Art and Industrial Design, I worked as a Graphic Designer. In retirement I rekindled my interest in screen printing and painting. The pieces of work on display depict the joy experienced in happy times spent with children and grandchildren on the beautiful North East coastline.

Other works show the joy of animals and birds enjoying the freedom of the natural world, the beauty of which is also depicted in the breathtaking sunrises at Alnmouth and Lindisfarne.

Mandy Smith

My name is Mandy Smith I live in Leeming Village with my partner, our two sons, a black lab and three house cats so it can be a bit of madhouse at times. I feel extremely lucky to live in such a beautiful county as North Yorkshire, it my enhances my hobbies wonderfully these include walking, bird watching, metal detecting and of course my art. I get so much inspiration from the beauty, nature and wildlife it has to offer. It makes painting such a pleasure, I am a member of North Art and the SAA and have shown my work in a few local exhibitions and Art Gallery’s plus have done a couple of “Spot on the Wall” exhibitions here at the Station. Although I’m happy to paint anything I have to admit I love painting animals especially in unconventional scenarios, I find them an absolute joy to do so when I read about the Stations “Joy” themed exhibition I felt compelled to apply, I just felt my work would fit perfectly so I was thrilled to be selected to be apart of it so I hope my pictures give people as much joy to look at it as it gave me to paint them.

Rachel Morrell

Every Spring ‘a host of golden daffodils’ emerge on the verges and lanes of Wensleydale bringing a flash of joy after the bleak winter hues. They are followed by the fields of buttercups; the ‘haymeadows’. The joyful yellows of these flowers inspired this collection of work. The field patterns and drystone walls provide the background shapes.

Rachel Morrell is a contemporary landscape artist. Her abstract and semi-abstract work in acrylics, oils, textiles and mixed media are inspired by walking and the view from her Wensleydale studio. Her layered approach evokes the textures, strata and patterns of the dales, moorland, coast and former industry in Yorkshire..

She has a particular interest in the way nature will return and take over derelict and ruined mills, former waterways and drovers roads. Her work is influenced by the Cubist movement, especially Cezanne and Braque, the mid 20th Century artists John Piper and Wilhelmina Barns-Graham

She has an MA from Leeds Arts University in Creative Practice and will be exhibiting with North Yorkshire Open Studios this June. She has exhibited regularly in North Yorkshire and also has a studio space at Farfield Mill, Sedbergh.

Christine Forsyth

Christine is a landscape photographer based in East Yorkshire. Her main inspiration comes from photographing the smaller details of the landscape in the wilder parts of the UK such as the mountains and forests of Scotland and Northern England.

The pictures included in this exhibition are all of the abstract patterns formed by light and reflections on the surface of moving water. Whether it’s a fast moving stream, the gentle lapping of waves on a shoreline or the swelling surface of a harbour, moving water in the landscape is a joyful thing and I try to capture the essence of this in my photographs. Some of the patterns are formed by overhanging branches and others by the broken reflections of boats or railings. Sometimes just the movement of the water itself forms interesting patterns. Part of the joy of making these images comes from the fact that I never know quite what the result will be and because the water is moving, each image is unique, never to be repeated. If you stand and stare at an area of water you can see if it has the potential to be interesting and to some extent the camera settings can influence the result, but nature does most of the work.