Mark Hearld's Menagerie

In t r o d u c i n g Ma r k He a r l d The Gallery is delighted to present Mark Hearld’s Menagerie this December. We have enjoyed Mark’s theatrical, creative, immersive world ever since Mark Hearld & Friends debuted in 2009. Ten years ago, Mark’s first solo exhibition with The Gallery was held in December, when the ice was so thick in the New Town of Edinburgh that the army were brought in to help. Our private view began with a heavy blizzard and we expected a quiet night – but such is the draw of Mark, a hardy crew turned up to celebrate, which just added to the magical atmosphere. Highlights of his remarkable career include The Lumber Room held at York Art Gallery from 2015-2017 where Mark curated a room of miscellaneous stored objects and artefacts and in 2018, Mark re-displayed the British Folk Art collection at Compton Verney.

Despite the lockdown, Mark has had a busy year. His work was included in Gilbert White’s tercentenary Natural History of Selbourne, Drawn to Nature: Gilbert White and the Artists at Pallant House Gallery. This was followed by an intense period of printing linocuts on his Atlas press in the cellar. Mark lives, works and has his home in York, but as a graduate of Glasgow School of Art, he is very much at home in The Scottish Gallery.

Mark Hearld takes inspiration from the natural world, particularly the British flora and fauna, the fox and chicken, hedgerow, and songbird. His paintings, collage, linocuts, designs and motifs are drawn from a lifetime of looking at pattern books, popular prints, primitive art and the poetry of Blake. For Mark Hearld’s Menagerie, the animal kingdom parades across his artworks transporting us to a storybook countryside where we find the sly fox, strutting cockerel, the moorhen at the water’s edge, the geese on the green at Carnyorth, and fields of Jersey cows in rich pastures. His whippet Blue, with whom he has shared lockdown, is companion and inspiration, his elegant shape and quick nature is an endless source of joy. Travelling to Cornwall provided much new material for the show. Both its landscape and the artists - Wallis, Heron, Nicholson and Christopher Wood, feed the creative energy we see in his exhibition.

Within this publication, Mark has created a special menagerie treasure hunt. There is an original Mark Hearld work to be won, with several runner-up prizes for those who can work out the puzzle, so wherever you are, near or far, let’s just rejoice in this original, popular British artist.

Christina Jansen The Scottish Gallery

My art and life are populated by birds and beasts and have been since childhood.

Most of the objects in my house are representations of some animal or other; art and the natural world are my abiding passions. As a child I enjoyed making things of all kinds and my mum helped me realise countless junk box projects.

As a family, Saturday afternoons were spent walking in the woods and throughout my teens I helped out at the local farms in Heslington with various ponies, cattle and of course lots of fowl: Mongrel bantams with spectacular plumage, Muscovy ducks, geese and guinea fowl. These birds were the first creatures I drew from life. In fact, a great friend and mentor John Hutchinson bought a couple of early studies of poultry made by me whilst at art school.

This was very encouraging and he helped me believe in my future as an artist.

I have continued making images of birds and animals ever since.

In September I went to Cornwall and l was surrounded by pedigree herds of Jersey and Guernsey cattle. Grazing the pasture and converting the grass to milk rich in butterfat is perfect for the ice cream produced and sold locally in Zennor. The gaggle of geese who animate the green in Carnyorth have caught my eye for years. I had been intending to make them into a collage since I first visited Cornwall and now, I have done!

Trips to the far west of Cornwall always provide a breath of fresh air; the light is remarkable - the ancient rugged landscape, which is surrounded by turquoise sea, is such a contrast to the blue grey North Sea on the Yorkshire coast. I tend to bomb about from village to village exploring, but most importantly of all is the art that Cornwall has inspired. It’s wonderful to revisit the work of Christopher Wood and early Ben Nicholson, or Patrick Heron and Breon O’Casey. It’s lovely to visit friends such as the sculptor and jeweller Guy Royle and Debbie Prosser who makes pots, or Sue Marshall, who weaves. Showing at the Yew Tree Gallery and staying in Gilly Wyatt Smith’s Shepherd’s Hut is my idea of heaven.

I also have a new dog in my life. Blue is a whippet who belongs to my parents, but we share him. My evening walk during lockdown was the highlight of each day. It was an opportunity to be in nature, by myself but not alone. The beauty of the whippet’s form and the joy in his energy have naturally entered my work.

In my print Me & Him (cat.1) I playfully upturn the notion of the classic double portrait - man and his best friend together in a linocut which mischievously refers to Ben Nicolson’s linocut self-portraits with Barbara Hepworth.

1 / Me & Him linocut print, 30 x 42 cm

An invitation to a garden party at my botanist friend John Grimshaw’s house introduced me to Berkheya purpurea, which is the most majestic of thistle varieties. Its petals, dusky pink like 18th century silk, were perfectly matched by a piece of paste paper on my studio floor. This provided me with the impetus to make the image. During a midsummer gale, the raucous joy of a municipal flower display of wind-blown petunias and pelargoniums dancing in the sunshine were also an inspiration! Learning how to look acutely and notice the visual richness in the everyday has been important to my practice. I am always observing - whether displaying collected objects at home or selected artefacts of all types as I did in my exhibition The Lumber Room at York Art Gallery (2015-2017). I have a lifelong interest in design and the decorative arts, which complements and enhances my experience of creating art.

On previous visits to Temple Newsam and Houghton Hall, I was always drawn to the rooms papered in Chinese wallpaper, they appeared teaming with life and I was inspired to buy Chinese Wallpapers in Britain, which is a remarkable publication by Emile de Bruin. My collages take motifs from the papers as a starting point. This makes a connection between my collages and the decorative textile designs I cut in lino.

Tyger Tyger (cat.19) was a linocut print made in the depths of lockdown. The pattern was inspired by the block printed American hat idea of the 1820s, which often featured bold, characterful animals set in primitive landscapes.

Their graphic punch is wonderfully compelling. A 19th Century embroidered tiger has been in my mind’s eye, since happening upon it in 1991 in the home of the potter Ursula Mommens, in the January issue of the World of Interiors Magazine. “The tiger is,” Ursula hopes, “by William Blake’s wife.” Such a delightful thought... I also looked at Thomas Bewick for tiger reference following Dora Carrington who used his iconic wood engraving as a reference for her book jacket design Stories of the East by Leonard Wolf (Hogarth Press 1921).

I’ve been enjoying decorating the frames around my work for the last couple of years. For me, patterning a frame turns image into object. The array of dots and dashes could overwhelm the collage, but in my experience, they intensify and heighten colour orchestration.

When everything is stripped back, the most important thing about Christmas is its atmosphere. Where this comes from is hard to pinpoint, but for me it’s encapsulated in the 80s television drama The Box of Delights with its mysterious theme by Healey Hutchison - the snow lies deep in the ground and carol singers gather round the front door. A treasure hunt is an old favourite too, or an advent calendar: having to wait for the next day or work out a clue, to help count down the days to twenty-five.

Mark Hearld, October 2020

2 / Mark Hearld’s Menagerie collage and mixed media, 22 x 31 cm

Treasure Hunt For your chance to win an original, Mark Hearld treasure, you will have to buy a hard copy of this publication and in doing so you are helping to support the homeless.

Bon Chance!

Mark Hearld Events Meet the Artist by Zoom | Tuesday 8th December 5pm (20 mins) Mark Hearld’s Musical Menagerie with Jonathan Gibbs Thursday 17th December 5pm (20 mins) Mark Hearld’s Christmas Menagerie Live Prize Winner Announcements by Zoom!

23rd December, 3pm (15 mins) scottish-gallery.co.uk/events Mark Hearld is supporting SASH - a youth homelessness charity which works across York, North and East Yorkshire. They help young people aged 16-25 who are facing homelessness.

For every publication sold, £1.50 is being donated to SASH. Registered charity 1054890.

3 / A Light Footed Fox collage and mixed media, 75 x 110 cm

4 / Hare III collage and mixed media, 44 x 56 cm

5 / Hare II collage and mixed media, 44 x 56 cm

6 / Osprey Commissioned by Pallant House Gallery for the exhibition ‘Drawn to Nature: Gilbert White and the Artists’ collage and gouache, 56 x 75 cm ‘Hearld has chosen to depict an osprey, which Gilbert White had seen at Frinsham Pond in Hampshire: ‘it was sitting on the handle of a plough and devouring a fish: it used to precipitate itself into the water, and so take its prey by surprise.’

7 / Venice Fish Market collage and mixed media, 44 x 56 cm

8 / Golden Pheasants collage and mixed media, 56 x 45 cm

9 / Bird From a Chinese Wallpaper mixed media drawing, 49 x 60 cm

10 / Wind Blown Flowers collage and mixed media, 55 x 36 cm

11 / High Summer collage and mixed media, 55 x 36 cm

12 / Berkheya Purpurea collage and mixed media, 56 x 75 cm

13 & 14 / Cockscomb I & II collage and mixed media, 12 x 10 cm

15 / Cockerel (Chinese Wallpaper) collage and mixed media, 46 x 37 cm

16 / Remembered Farm collage and mixed media, 75 x 110 cm

17 / The Rick Rack Fence collage and mixed media, 56 x 75 cm

18 / Cockerel linocut print, 30 x 42 cm

19 / Tyger Tyger linocut print, 58 x 40 cm

20 / Ratter I collage and mixed media, 30 x 42 cm

21 / Ratter II collage and mixed media, 30 x 42 cm

22 / Whippet Pair I collage and mixed media, 15 x 21 cm

23 / Whippet Pair II collage and mixed media, 15 x 21 cm

24 / Blue mixed media drawing, 75 x 110 cm

25 / Goose linocut print, 30 x 42 cm

26 / Hare linocut print, 30 x 42 cm

27 / Moorhen collage and mixed media, 21 x 21 cm

28 / French Partridge collage and mixed media, 30 x 30 cm

29 / Geese collage and mixed media, 56 x 75 cm

30 / Crested Duck collage and mixed media, 44 x 56 cm

31 /Hoopoes Commissioned by Pallant House Gallery for the exhibition ‘Drawn to Nature: Gilbert White and the Artists’ collage and gouache, 56 x 75 cm Gilbert White commented that: ‘The most unusual birds I ever observed in these parts were a pair of hoopoes (upupa), which came several years ago in the summer, and frequented an ornamental piece of ground, which joins to my garden, for some weeks. They used to march about in a stately manner, feeding in the walks, many times in the day; and seemed disposed to breed in my outlet; but were frightened and persecuted by idle boys, which would never let them be at rest.’ (Letter XI, Selborne, September 9, 1767)

32 / Hare, Partridges and Pheasants Commissioned by Pallant House Gallery for the exhibition ‘Drawn to Nature: Gilbert White and the Artists’ collage and gouache, 56 x 75 cm In his fifth letter to Thomas Pennant, Gilbert White declared: ‘The manor of Selborne, was it strictly looked after, with all its kindly aspects; and all its sloping coverts, would swarm with game; and even now hares, partridges, pheasants around; and in old days woodcock were a plentiful. There are few quails because they more affect open fields than enclosures; after harvest few landrails are seen.’

Featured as the cover of Illustration Magazine, Spring 2020, Issue 63 and in an article in the same issue by Simon Martin, p.23.

33 / Longdog linocut print, 22 x 30 cm

34 / Little Owl linocut print, 22 x 30 cm

Biography Born in 1974 and based in York, Hearld studied illustration at Glasgow School of Art before completing an MA in Natural History Illustration at the Royal College of Art. Taking his inspiration from the flora and fauna of the British countryside, Mark Hearld works across a range of media, producing limited edition lithographic and linocut prints, unique paintings, collages and handpainted ceramics. Hearld’s work is exhibited across the UK and commissions include a range of ceramics for Tate.

In 2015, Mark Hearld was invited to curate and transform The Upper North Gallery at the York Art Gallery to reflect his vision of a Lumber Room – a room of miscellaneous stored objects and artefacts. For two years, Mark Hearld was given access to the collections of the Yorkshire Museum and York Castle Museum as well as York Art Gallery. The outcome was The Lumber Room: Unimagined Treasures 2015-2017.

In 2018, Mark Hearld was invited to re-imagine the British Folk Art Collection at Compton Verney, Warwickshire which also included making unique works and a new wallpaper. His work has also featured in the Gilbert White exhibition at Pallant House Gallery, Chichester this year. Three works were included, inspired by Gilbert White’s Natural History of Selborne and were commissioned to mark White’s tercentenary in 2020, which also included Eric Ravilious, Gertrude Hermes, John Piper, Clare Leighton, Angie Lewin, Emily Sutton, Ed Kluz and Michael Kirkman.

Publications A First Book of Nature published by Walker Books Mark Hearld’s Work Book published by Merrell Books Awards Elle Decoration British Design Award 2012 for ‘Harvest Hare’ wallpaper for St Jude’s.

Published by The Scottish Gallery to coincide with the exhibition; Mark Hearld’s Menagerie 28 November - 23 December 2020 Mark Hearld would like to thank Simon Martin from Pallant House Gallery, Martin Clarke at Tilley Printing, Alan Knight at York Rose Framing, Quacks Printers York, York Digital Image, Hermione McCosh for her portrait photography and all his friends at Pica Studios.

Exhibition can be viewed online at: scottish-gallery.co.uk/markhearld ISBN: 978-1-912900-26-8

Front cover: Mark Hearld’s Menagerie, collage and mixed media, 22 x 31 cm (cat.2) Designed and produced by The Scottish Gallery Photography by York Digital Image and Pallant House Gallery Portrait & interior photography by Hermione McCosh Printed by Barr Colour Printers All rights reserved. No part of this catalogue may be reproduced in any form by print, photocopy or by any other means, without the permission of the copyright holders and of the publishers.

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