Judith Yarrow OAS – portfolio

Contact the artist

https://www.judithyarrow.com
07969 039204
judithyarrow[at]hotmail.com

You are always welcome to visit by appointment at my studio in Chipping Norton. Phone or email : judithyarrow@hotmail.com

Exhibition information

Artweeks 2026 sees me welcoming you back to my studio. The wonderfully interesting Jeweller and painter Jane Griffiths is joining me. She lives just around the corner in Chipping Norton. My exhibition includes  landscape paintings (remote mountains & coasts based on the walks I do), cards , a new pack of 5 woodland cards, and high-quality Giclee prints. I’m launching a new Artist’s Book – a recipe book, which was originally aimed for family and friends, some of whom have given me recipes included here.

Here’s the introduction to the book: Here you will find recipes for friends and family, for gathering together, for ordinary days, for when there’s just you or two or a few, for a cosy evening and some for the freezer. Here are treats for celebrations with young & old. Recipes that are easy and flexible, for when we’re busy, and people come unexpectedly, that can be used to freestyle from. Recipes for cooking with children – And the joy when they can proclaim ‘I cooked it all by myself’. Food that is sustaining and home cooked and only needs some simple ingredients. There are recipes that use a garden glut, recipes handed down by friends and family, recipes I always get asked for – recipes that become a tradition, that remind us of weddings, holidays, births and birthdays, that remind us of those no longer with us. And a secret ingredient – a teaspoon of local honey can often improve a dish. Dedicated to my family and friends and all the meals and recipes we’ve shared together.

The book is a folded concertina construction with pockets that hold 18 recipe cards with 33 recipes and with18 illustrations on the pockets. I’ll be folding and constructing each book by hand for a limited signed and numbered edition of 100. The photos of this book here, are a mock-up. The watercolour, pen and pencil illustrations feature ingredients, dishes and  classic cooking utensils, which are ones we’ve all known through generations – the Mason Cash mixing bowl, the hand rotary whisk, metal colander and sieve, garlic crusher, glass lemon squeezer etc. I loved painting them-in the kitchen of course -a cosy place to be this cold and wet January. It involved locating ingredients: lovely fresh bunches of beetroots  and carrots with leaves from Chippy market, herbs, cauliflowers, garlic, marrow, potatoes etc from the garden. Then cooking the dishes so I could paint them. We ate well this January.

We have a large family  and part of my reason for doing it is that as I get older, I want to pass recipes on to the next generations, to our 4 children and partners and our 9 grandchildren. I’m no great cook – these are everyday recipes; many evolved to my own flexible recipe depending on what we have in the garden or the fridge. They are all vegetarian except for a fish chowder recipe.   

 

Artist information

The rest of the exhibition highlights some of the landscape paintings from my residency at FarmED, the regenerative farming centre near Chipping Norton and my continuing series of work on the Celtic rainforests of South Snowdonia inspired by Guy Shrubsole’s  ‘The Lost Rainforests of Britain’. I knew Guy as a young boy from a babysitting circle his mother and I belonged to (we are still in touch) and who used to stay in the remote mountain family house my parents bought as a ruin, in the 1960’s and is still in our family and where I frequently paint. Its view is the Cader Idris range. His book opened my eyes to the richness of the ancient woods, on the doorstep there. I turned my attention from the distant horizons to the astonishing detail in these woods. I  wanted to draw people’s attention to the richness and diversity to be found there, which need conserving and need valuing, as they have become increasingly rare. Since I was very young, I’ve loved the meditative quality of observing and painting plants. I’ve chosen mediums that don’t require glass to make the viewing experience more immediate. They are framed in simple white wooden ‘tray’ frames. 

Jane and I would love to see you. Hot drinks, biscuits, cake (until it runs out- and chat always available! Children welcome.