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In Conversation With... Angela Harding
Her Year
Unfolding “What’s that saying… you are never too old for your first book,” quipped Angela Harding, the revered printmaker whose beautiful hardback, A Year Unfolding is, not surprisingly, right up there in the best sellers’ nature books list. As Art Angels and Flametree Publishing prepare to launch their latest products featuring her meticulously created art, PG had the pleasure of visiting Angela in her Rutland studio.
Angela Harding does not need to go very far to find inspiration, all she needs to do is look out of her studio window or step out of its door (situated at the bottom of her cottage garden in rural Rutland) and relish in the natural beauty of the gently rolling countryside. “In winter I can watch flocks of fieldfares and redwings stride across the fields pecking at the ground in formation like synchronised swimmers; in spring hares box and in summer swallows swoop and dive,” Angela explains in the introduction of A Year Unfolding, which is a journey of her nature watching through the seasons, told through her art and the stories behind them. Angela readily accepts she has been somewhat ahead of the curve by several decades, on the trend for nature appreciation, and has the sketch books, lino 72
PROGRESSIVE GREETINGS WORLDWIDE
and silkscreen printing to prove it, that capture the wonders of British birds and wildlife set against rural and coastal beauty in her own distinctive style. “Due to lockdown and the pandemic, this last year arguably more than any other has seen many more people valuing nature, enjoying its sights, smells and sounds, whether in a small garden, a wilderness, a
Above: Having sketched out the idea, Angela then spends a great deal of time on the lino-cutting and printing before silkscreen printing the colour in her studio. Far left: Angela’s new book, A Year Unfolding, features 120+ of her artworks from the last 12 years as well as the stories behind them. Left: This print was first created as the cover for Raynor Winn’s The Wild Silence (a sequel to The Salt Path). Below: Angela’s whippet Amy features on the Look Out design, which appears on several products, including this jigsaw from Flametree Publishing.
park or watching an indoor plant flourish over the course of time,” believes Angela. While her art has graced a number of book jackets for different publishers and authors, from PD James (22 books, published by Faber and Faber) to Raynor Wynn (Salt Path and The Wild Silence, published by Penguin), this is the first book dedicated to her work, and her words.
