Step by Step – Kay Leech and Gillian Cooper

Their work is about emotional response and memory, conveying the sense of place and what it means to them personally. It is about texture, pattern and colour and how those elements combine to evoke the memory of a place at a certain time, on one day – creating a particular atmosphere. The light, misty shadows, murky foggy, bright intense winter sun. The colours – bracken glowing in autumn sun, sharp white of fresh snow, blue of hills in low light. The textures – smooth wet rocks, spiky grasses, rough abrasive stone, rusting metal from old workings.

Whilst celebrating the beauty of the natural landscape where they live, Kay and Gillian also explore the industrial history of the areas. Gillian’s work explores Loch Katrine Aqueduct and the strange duality of a huge municipal asset running through the picturesque Trossachs, supplying Scotland’s most industrial city with water. Whilst Kay’s work explores the mining and quarrying that has shaped the Cumbrian landscape.