An itch to etch but farming mainstay feeds his art
An itch to etch but farming mainstay feeds his art
Bill Yardley is a farmer first
and foremost but he is also
a professional artist.
Tessa Gates went up to
Knightcote, Warwickshire to
see his etchings
IN A room above the kitchen at Manor Farm, Knightcote, a copper plate is being painstakingly etched. The detail, so fine that it would not stand from anything but copper, is being worked by Bill Yardley in a farmhouse that has been home to generations of his family since 1650.
Bill is a talented artist and the limited edition prints of his etchings are sought after by a growing band of collectors. But, just like the generations before him, Bill is a farmer and a conscientious one at that. His 81ha (200 acres) of heavy Warwick-shire land is split pretty evenly between cereals and sheep, and he works it himself with help from his wife Brenda and seasonal labour.
"All my life I have been making images and I have always been a farmer. I would not want to be a full-time artist at the expense of the farm and anyway it is the farm that feeds my art so vigorously," explains Bill, who was recently awarded an honorary Master of Arts degree by the University of Warwick.
* Sheep a favourite
Sheep are a favourite subject and the one he is most closely associated with. "I show people my badgers, cockerels, cows, owls… and they want sheep. They think of me as the sheep man," he says. He admits he is interested in sheep, real (he keeps around 200) and drawn, and can see the character of them. "People say I catch the essence of the animal – I go beyond the photo image."
Two of his sheep prints – The Sheep And The Tree and The Sheep and the Moon – have been exhibited at the Royal Academy in a summer exhibition. These stylised and finely detailed works are often described as having a haunting quality about them.
"It is nice that people are collecting my work but I never set out to please the market
IN A room above the kitchen at Manor Farm, Knightcote, a copper plate is being painstakingly etched. The detail, so fine that it would not stand from anything but copper, is being worked by Bill Yardley in a farmhouse that has been home to generations of his family since 1650.
Bill is a talented artist and the limited edition prints of his etchings are sought after by a growing band of collectors. But, just like the generations before him, Bill is a farmer and a conscientious one at that. His 81ha (200 acres) of heavy Warwick-shire land is split pretty evenly between cereals and sheep, and he works it himself with help from his wife Brenda and seasonal labour.
"All my life I have been making images and I have always been a farmer. I would not want to be a full-time artist at the expense of the farm and anyway it is the farm that feeds my art so vigorously," explains Bill, who was recently awarded an honorary Master of Arts degree by the University of Warwick.
* Sheep a favourite
Sheep are a favourite subject and the one he is most closely associated with. "I show people my badgers, cockerels, cows, owls… and they want sheep. They think of me as the sheep man," he says. He admits he is interested in sheep, real (he keeps around 200) and drawn, and can see the character of them. "People say I catch the essence of the animal – I go beyond the photo image."
Two of his sheep prints – The Sheep And The Tree and The Sheep and the Moon – have been exhibited at the Royal Academy in a summer exhibition. These stylised and finely detailed works are often described as having a haunting quality about them.
"It is nice that people are collecting my work but I never set out to please the marketplace," says Bill, who seems to get great pleasure from all stages of his work, from sketching and drawing through to etching and printing.
While he draws and etches in the art room most evenings – "I can spend all night just working on a sheeps ear" – the time for print making is usually found in the winter months when the sheep are housed and he is on top of the arable work.
* Small in size
Much of his work is small in size. "Tight, detailed things where every line counts," he explains. "Everything I do is very considered. I do stacks of drawings. Then the design element has to be right. It is a very graphic process."
Working with a burin on a polished copper plate covered with Hard Ground – a mix of beeswax, bitumen and resin that he has melted onto the plate – he engraves a reverse image through that black surface with painstaking care.
"It is a very direct medium and I have to get it right as even a tiny scratch will print. I have a burnisher for mistakes but I prefer them not to happen," says Bill.
His print room is in the old dairy and his printing press, is solid and traditional rather than a lighter modern version. "A print is governed by the amount of metal in the press and mine has lots of metal in it. I have had it for about 15 years and it was designed by David Dudsworth – a star in the print world today – and made by an engineer friend of mine," explains Bill. "All that weight is transferred into the print; everything is so positive."
He enjoys the technical process of print making, applying resins, tints and acids to split second timing and mixing his own inks from powder and oil. The ink is scrimmed onto the plate into all of the lines and then polished off until the plate is shining again.
The plate is then put on the press and covered with vellum made by monks in Somerset from 100% rags – "There is a joy in paper you use, too." The paper will have been soaked for days then semi dried. It is covered with three blankets and wound through the press and the skill is in getting the pressure just right.
* Crosshead
"It is all done manually. I go by feel. Instinct. There is a tremendous amount of natural response in the process," says Bill. "Then you peel the paper off and there you see the printed image, the reverse of the plate, and that is the magic. It is a great sensation if you see a really nice crisp print with no stains on it. A good printer doesnt get ink on the edge of the plate."
The wet print goes under tissue onto acid free blotters for a couple of days until it has dried and the inks still have a nice bloom on them. Then the prints are signed, numbered and prepared for sale.
Bill will make 10 to 15 prints to begin with and if they sell he will do some more, up to a maximum of 50. "I want them to be elitist and not too plentiful," he says. "Anyway when I have done 50 plates I want to do something different." The prints sell for £35 to £80 (unframed) in galleries, exhibitions and from the farmhouse*
Bill, who was trained in both agriculture and fine art has found a way to combine both without comprising the farm or his art. "The art makes me much more aware of the aesthetic qualities of the farm and more caring about what goes on here and I always know I have a job for a wet day," he says happily.
* Tel (01295 770350)
Bill Yardley works on copper plate to produce the finely detailed etchings he is known for. His farming inspires his art and his etchings of sheep, particularly, are sought after by collectors of his limited edition prints.