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 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.

“Having been commissioned by Sphere to create the cover for Val McDermid’s Christmas is Murder, wanting to publish a nature’s seasons-inspired book under its Little Brown imprint they approached me initially to see if I would be interested in working collaboratively with a writer. However realising that I have the stories behind the images, it would be more authentic if I was the author. I was a tad nervous at first, but the support from editor Fiona Rose gave me confidence and I ended up really enjoying bringing it all to life,” reveals Angela.

Among the 125+ images that feature in the book are several that have spread joy as greeting cards, notecards, Advents (all published by Art Angels under licence) or on notebooks, calendars or jigsaws (all published by Flametree Publishing under licence).

“It takes me an average six weeks to create an image - from the sketch to chiselling the design out of lino to hand silkscreening it in my studio - retaining the copyright enables me to use it on other products, such as greeting cards and

Voice from the Angels

Chris Cordingly, managing director of Art Angels, which produces greeting cards, notecards and Advent calendars of Angela’s artwork under licence, reveals he has lots in the pipeline for 2022 already. “It’s been another big year for Angela Harding products from Art Angels, in fact the best yet! The Advent calendars are extraordinary, we doubled print runs for 2021 but still ran out well before the end of November. Each year Angela comes up with a new format/layout and theme which we then have to work out how to print and assemble! We’ll be getting together with Angela early in the New Year to plan the year ahead, but I’ve already got a number of her prints scanned here ready to release in January, then Spring and beyond. The new ‘concertina’ cards have also been particularly popular and we hope to print new ones in 2022.”

Below: A trio of Concertina cards from Art Angels featuring Angela Harding’s art.

calendars, which makes my life as a printmaker viable!” admits Angela. “Not only that, but it means that my art can reach more people and hopefully be enjoyed by them.” With 2021 having unfolded,

Angela is onto her next bunch of projects. “I have a busy slate of more book publishing in the pipeline, a project with the National Portrait Gallery as well as work with Art Angels and Flametree, but hopefully I will also find some time to enjoy the coming changing seasons, and wherever I am, my sketch books, lino and chisels will invariably be there too!”

Left: Angela applying some printing ink to one of her lino cut designs. Inset: The studio at the bottom of Angela and her husband Mark’s garden that looks out onto fields of sheep.

Burning bright at Flametree

Frances Bodiam, managing director of Flametree Publishing, which licences Angela’s designs for calendars, notebooks and jigsaws shares her views and news: “Angela is definitely our most popular contemporary artist for calendars, jigsaws and notebooks. Not only that, but she is a delight; she is always receptive to new ideas and works really well with our editorial team to make high quality beautiful products. This year’s calendars and diaries featuring Angela’s work all sold out in the first month of arriving in the warehouse and we had to re-print the wall calendar. Our 2023 range of calendars and diaries will be gorgeous (and we know we need to print many, many more!). We have new notebooks featuring her art coming in Spring and have just published the Salt Path design, both as a jigsaw and notebook. We’ve also included Angela’s Southwold Swan design in our new sustainable range of jigsaws, which are produced from recycled FSC board.”