"How many students have we got today?" I asked Joe Piliero, the director of the School of Artisan Food as we were setting up our first Introduction to Food Photograph course a couple of weeks ago. "Fourteen" he answered and I was delighted. Just enough students to work in four groups on our projects for the day but not too many to overwhelm me.
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Mounting an exhibition of my Yorkshire themed photographs in a decommissioned telephone box in the charming town of Settle, is one of the most bizarre things I have been asked to do. But I am glad I said yes because it has been such fun. Roger Taylor, a professional curator, formerly of the National Media Museum, Bradford looked after my confidence and assured me it could be done. When we could not see the digital screen as the sun streamed into the phone box I said I could make blinds.
iPad drawing printed on calico blind
Thinking quickly on my feet I came up with a plan of making them from calico decorated with prints of my iPad food themed doodles, the sheep, lopsided cow, pheasant etc. With an act of faith I fed pieces of material through my precious printer and managed rather lovely, paler versions of what I can see on the retina display of my iPad.Another ‘creative’ resident of the Green, Settle, in the form of Marion Armstrong, who usually managed the charming historic Settle to Carlisle railway, turned her hand to making a vegetable themed mosaic floor.
Her husband John organised a planter with local wild herbs such as sweet cicely, wild garlic and nettles - all great ingredients to use in spring menus.
Then one night I thought it might be welcoming for the visitors to the exhibition if we had mini food themed bunting strewn from the vaulted ceiling of the telephone box and across its pretty windows. So I got out my sewing machine once again and made bunting from contact sheet sized photographs. This would send a clear signal to visitors to the Green that what is going on inside the box is nothing to do with the activities of drug users and prostitutes.
Recipes relating to the photographs on display are there for
those who manage to open the stiff door and make it into the 1 metre square
exhibition. If you would like to visit the Yorkshire Food Yorkshire People
exhibition at the Gallery on the Green Settle you have until the 6th July to do so. It is easy to find once you have found the ancient part of Settle.
The address is
, Upper Settle, BD24 9HG. Also you may like to come along to the linked Take Three Chef’s event (I am the only one that is not a chef) with super star Stephanie Moon and Matt Birtwhistle. The event is being held at the charming, Victoria Hall, Settle which is the only continuously running Victorian music Hall in the country. Tickets are £10 and can be obtained from the Victoria Hall Box Office (tel: 01729 825718) or Book online at
Joan Ransley outside the Gallery on the Green
Our first visitors to the exhibition
From left to right. Marion Armstrong, Roger Taylor, John Armstrong, Alison Marshall
About The Gallery on the Green
The Upper Settle phone box was purchased by Settle Town
Council in early 2009 under the BT ‘Adopt a Kiosk’ scheme. As part of the
scheme it was agreed that the phone box would be set up as a community art
gallery. Grant funding was obtained from Craven District Council and Settle
Town Council.
The iconic phone box is of the K6 type and was designed by Sir
Giles Gilbert Scott in 1935 to commemorate George the Fifth’s Silver Jubilee
and has been refurbished inside and out.
Since
opening in 2009 a series of constantly changing exhibitions have been mounted
with contributions from local, national, and international artists,(including
the guitarist Brian May) whose interest and generous engagement in sustaining
the life of the gallery lies at the core of its success.
Chicken and eggs
It snowed heavily today in Ilkley. As I woke up I could hear clods of melting snow slide clumsily down the window pane. Goose feathers of snow drifted down to earth and I made a warming cup of tea. I looked out over Ilkley Moor which was shrouded in mist and the high ground was covered in a douvet of snow.
My mission was to drive 17 miles north to Settle and photograph some unusual chickens. It was cold and wet but I was keen to get some pictures in the bag and stick to my plan despite the awful weather.
I have been asked to mount a small exhibition of my photographs on Yorkshire food at
in Settle from 18th May to 6th July and I need some more photographs of eye catching livestock.
Jean Carr lives in Settle and is a keen allotment holder. She and her husband have acquired the equivalent of five allotments and manage them as a small holding.
Their land is beautifully kept and positioned on the edge of Settle surrounded by magnificent, towering, craggy Yorkshire landscape.
Jean keeps about fifty assorted chickens including Cream leg bars, Vorwerks, Houdans and Silkies. Silkies have foppish fringes and look stunning. She also keeps Booted Bantams who look in need of braces to keep their fluffy knicker like leg feathers from falling down.
At this time of the year the hens are laying prolifically. As we tour the spacious coop and barn I hear a hen cluck. Jean looks at me and says 'that's one being laid'. I look in the wooden nesting box and sure enough a blue egg is ready for collection. It is warm to touch and Jean allows me to take it home.
The eggs are a soft, somber palate of colour - pale blue, olive green, soft grey and cream. When the eggs are cracked open the yolks are vivid orange. This is partly because of the breed but also due to the diet of the chickens which is rich in carotinoids - the coloured pigments in a range of fruit and vegetables.
These chickens are well fed on fresh vegetable scraps from the allotment and they are free to run about outside in a very large coop.
The Gallery on the Green at Settle claims to be 'probably the smallest art gallery in the world'. It is housed in a decommissioned telephone box. Inside and just above the 'out of use' phone is a digital screen which displays A4 sized photographs. The gallery/phone box is also given a makeover at the start of each exhibition with props and decor to suit the theme of the exhibition.
The telephone box was purchased by local residents for £1.00 in 2010 and has become a popular feature of village life in Settle.
The tiny Gallery has some eminent fans including Brian May, Queen's lead guitarist who opened an exhibition of his painstaking collection of stereo images contained in 'Village Lost and Found' a book he co-authored with
Elena Vidal.
Brian loves the Gallery on the Green and has asked its curator Roger Taylor (not the one in Queen!) if he can put on another exhibition next year.
Alison Marshall one of the committee that manages the Gallery said with a wry smile 'I am not sure about that as we are very booked up. But we will try to fit him in'.
For more information on my exhibition of Yorkshire Food see
Yorkshire Food, Yorkshire People 18th May to 6 July
The Gallery on the Green, Settle