About this artwork

I feel so lucky to live close to the yorkshire moors now. I spent many days with my family walking across the moors on family days out, my parents actually named me after Emily Brontes character Catherine from wuthering heights!

I grew up in various places across Yorkshire, Lancashire, Midlands and down south in Berkshire but parts of my childhood spent in Yorkshire and Lancashire has left me with so many happy childhood memories, ones that I want to recreate for my own family.

I am the first to admit I romanticise things but It’s hard not to find the landcscape idyllic in the summer when the sun shines and the heather blooms pinks and purples. With children running and playing free and couples sitting on rocks and looking out across what seems like the whole world, it’s hard not to see it as a slice of paradise on earth. Even when the weather changes and the wind picks up, I love wildness about the moors.

We have visited Ilkley Moors a few times during lockdown and the children just run! I hope it brings them the same sense of freedom as it does me. I hope I have done justice to it in this painting.