Suffolk artist to speak in Southwold and Woodbridge

They appear on book covers, greetings cards, calendars, jigsaws and bags, even oven gloves, tea towels and water bottles, and each year her new design of advent calendar is sought after by collectors.

She has been producing her stunning lino prints for more than four decades, but in the past few years appreciation for her beautiful images has soared. Reaching a wide audience through the variety of merchandise and her designs for book covers such as ‘The Salt Path’ and the award-winning children’s story ‘October, October’ she also has her own collection of bestselling books.

Angela's new book (Image: Supplied) The latest title, ‘Still Waters and Wild Waves’ was released this autumn and next week Angela will be visiting Suffolk to introduce it to audiences in Southwold and Woodbridge.

‘I have been inspired by rivers, the sea and the still waters of lakes and ponds,’ she says. ‘And in each chapter of the book I have endeavoured to capture the thrill of watching waves and rippling water.’

It features over 50 of her original illustrations of dramatic seascapes and reflective rivers in both lino print and watercolour images, and there are pages from her sketchbook too.

She provides a warm, engaging and insightful commentary throughout and beautiful photography shows Angela at work and enjoying the landscapes that mean so much to her. In recent years she’s been spotting birds and whales during a residency in Shetland, and she spent time at the Knepp Estate working on images for the ‘Wilding’ book with Isabella Tree.

But the place she returns to time and again is Suffolk. Many of her pictures are inspired by her visits here. Though Angela and her husband Mark live in landlocked rural Rutland, they moor their 24ft wooden sailing boat near Woodbridge and, each summer, sail the rivers and coastline of East Anglia.

‘I love the romance of being on the boat,’ she says. ‘It’s our wooden caravan on the water. Mark is a retired cabinet maker so he can manage the endless varnishing and we’ve taken it all over the place, to Shetland, France and the Channel Islands. But we agree that our favourite place to be is either on the Deben or the Butley River because it’s so beautiful and calming and quiet. We love being there.”

Scenes of Suffolk regularly feature in Angela’s work. Two Curlews on the Deben, Southwold Swan and Barn Owls at Orford are among her most popular pictures.

Life on the boat without email, screens or phone interruptions means that she can give herself over entirely to her art, taking a tiny chisel and meticulously and methodically scoring the surface of a sheet of lino. Her picture of a meandering river or turbulent sea is sketched in outline and then she cuts and pares away to create an intricate relief which will be inked and hand printed.

‘Water can be difficult to portray in all mediums, but I find that when working in lino, the chiselled lines give a sense of movement and power,’ she says. The process requires the utmost concentration as the slightest slip can ruin hours of work.

‘I love my studio,’ says Angela, ‘but for initiating ideas and working on blocks, I don’t need big facilities. On board, the calm and the quiet inspires me and with the early mornings and the evenings, you feel like you’re using the whole of the day. So the boat is perfect.’

By sharing her story to audiences in person and through her books, Angela says she hopes she conveys the importance of these beautiful locations to her and how precious they are to all of us.

Angela Harding will be speaking in Southwold Sailors’ Reading Room at 11am on Saturday 31 November. For tickets call 01502 722873

Angela Harding will be in conversation at The Riverside Woodbridge on Sunday 1 December at 3pm. Tickets are £25 and include a copy of ‘Still Waters and Wild Waves’. Details www.theriverside.co.uk or call 01394 382174