NORMAN ACKROYD - A SHETLAND NOTEBOOK

One of Britain s foremost printmakers, Norman Ackroyd CBE RA has spent a lifetime recording the coastal landscapes of the British Isles. A Shetland Notebook contains forty of his vivid landscape sketches in watercolour. Made in the open air, often aboard a pitching and tossing fishing boat, these lively, spontaneous works capture the unique atmosphere of these remote and beautiful islands. The notebook s unusual format is due entirely to the artist, who uses sheets of various types of paper torn to fit into a loose-leaf ring binder made from two pieces of wooden picture-backing; this he tucks into his coat pocket, ready for use whenever the need arises. His brief but engaging commentaries place each sketch in its context. Following the success of A Line in the Water , Ackroyd's collaboration with the award-winning poet Douglas Dunn OBE, published by the Royal Academy in 2009, A Shetland Notebook is an essential purchase for all admirers of this most characterful artist s work.