To celebrate its survival. I've put together an exhibition which showcases 25 artists of significance to me in those 25 years which you can see on the web site www.castlegatehouse.co.uk. It opens on 1st June and runs until 9th July with a big birthday celebration on 7th July.

This will be my last exhibition as director of the gallery. In the last few years I have become a surprised successful writer and lecturer. It has increasingly become a struggle to fit everything in - to clear the time and the mind to do what I love most which is writing.

The books, articles and forays into the London art world have given the gallery high profile national standing. Castlegate House has become important to the economy of Cockermouth, to tourism in Cumbria and to all you good people who have supported me over the years. But with it has come an increasingly frantic life style. I have drastically reduced opening times and neglected family and friends in an attempt to fit it all in.

So when I was approached by Chris and Steven Swallow in January asking if I would consider selling the gallery, the idea which initially seemed alien presented a sensible solution. They will carry on and develop what I began all those years ago. They will bring a new energy to it - finding new artists and expanding opening times. I can get on with writing. It was a hard decision but I'd rather let go while winning, confident that I am leaving it in a safe pair of hands.

Until then there are 3 significant dates for the diary.

Thursday 31st May 6.00 - 8.00pm THE OPENING OF 25 FOR 25.

SATURDAY 9th June 10.30 - 5.00 STOCK CUPBOARD SALE. Not to be missed! Items of furniture, books and personal pictures will also be included. Michael and I already have a fully furnished/equipped minimalist house so we need nothing more. Everything must go!

SATURDAY 7th July ALL DAY BIRTHDAY PARTY. 10.30 - 5.00. Meet the new owners. Birthday cake, wine and official hand over at 2.30. Entertainment through the day.

There is a full colour catalogue for the Birthday Exhibition with a personal profile of each of the 25 contributors.(£5 inc postage) We are also producing a special Kelly Still Life etching in an edition of 75 inscribed to commemorate the birthday (see it on www.castlegatehouse.co.uk). It is larger than those in the folio set and will become a collector's piece - we are taking advance orders now. (£325) When the edition has been printed, the plate will be scored. The first orders to come in will get the lowest numbers etc and I will have the last - 75/75.

The magnificent Georgian Fair also had a lot to do with the success of last weekend. The whole town was alive with townsfolk from another century. Little groups gathered for a chat on the Main street or Market Place, soldiers in red and gold marched up and down with their muskets, Morris dancers danced and little children played with hoops and tops when they should surely have been inside with their computer games or watching the football on television! The costumes were magnificent, many of them ingeniously run up at home out of curtains and odd bits of lace. Apparently Simplicity does some period patterns for occasions such as this. The improvisations were clever. A housemaid and butler from the lower orders came in the gallery subserviently offering to do some menial tasks for us but turned out on closer scrutiny to be my computer engineer and wife. Is that an oxymoron or what?

The Karen Wallbank show was a slow starter the week before but has now got a respectable number of red spots. We have been inundated with people picking up their Kelly purchases - the heap was so big it blocked the hallway. Percy is a very hard act to follow but I reckon Karen's pulled it off. Her paintings are her best yet with marvellous skies and atmosphere. You have at least 2 more weeks to come in and see them or browse the web pages.

I have now begun to put the next exhibition up on www.castlegatehouse.co.uk. There are 25 artists involved covering the 25 years Castlegate House has been a gallery. It isn't complete as yet but it is building up nicely. More of that another day. I wouldn't want to upstage Karen again!

So we ought to be feeling depressed but we are not - though I confess that there are some Kellys I wish I hadn't sold. I have a proprietorial feeling as people carry their treasures away. I have lived with them so long that I feel they belong to me.Two weeks ago two small PK's went through our local auction room and fetched a hammer price of £3700 each - then there was commission and costs to add on. This is telling us something. A Kelly lifts spirits more than money in the savings account.

But spring is in the air and we are surrounded by new lambs. They are wriggling through the fence into our garden and scampering around the field in gangs. So it is appropriate that we open a solo show by farmer Karen Wallbank on Friday (private viewing Thursday evening 6.00 - 8.00 - you're all invited). It's all about sheep, hills, weather and isolation. These are the best paintings she has ever done. They make you catch your breath, feel the rain on your face and be glad to be alive in the harsh north in the spring. Karen will be here that evening. She is an extraordinary woman and very funny as well. To meet her is an experience to remember.

Karen is a compulsive painter. After she left college in Leeds and married hill farmer George Wallbank, turning down a place at Goldsmith's College London, she has been painting in any spare moments she can grab. When I discovered her in 1988 she had a barn full of previously unseen paintings which were casually strewn among the usual detritus accumulated in the barn of a working farm. Her 'studio' was this same dark barn - the only light coming through heavily cobwebbed skylights. Her first solo show some months later was a sensation. She didn't recognise her newly stretched and framed canvasses hanging in the gallery space.

Her new exhibition  of some 30 paintings runs from 27th April to 28th May. You can come and meet Karen at the private view on Thursday 26th April 6.00 - 8.00pm. This will be an experience not to be missed.

After a magnificent run and yet again a demonstration of his pulling power, the Percy Kelly show will come down next week and disperse in all directions to those lucky enough to have secured one. It finishes next Monday. So you have this weekend to catch it in its entirety at Castlegate House and Theatre by the Lake in Keswick. Each of the 10 etchings are framed up for you to see. They have been selling briskly throughout the show. We'll then bring them back to Castlegate so you can see them there - they make a great gift (specially to yourself!) and we still have a few of the beautiful hand made folios of all 10 left which you can see on request.

Half of the Kelly show is at Theatre by the Lake in Keswick on two floors and is open every day from 0930 - 8.00pm in the evening. If you want to purchase from there please let us know at the gallery. You can also get an excellent coffee there.  They are showing Alan Bennett's History Boys which is an extra bonus so you can catch that at the same time.(book in advance though on 017687 74411. Then come on to the gallery and see the rest of it. Despite the mad rush to buy there are still about 20 paintings left unsold (see the web page www.castlegatehouse.co.uk to see which they are) and the etchings are being snapped up very fast. Stormy Day Cockermouth (illustrated) is a popular one whch is ironic. Interest in Kelly is accelerating fast. Where will it end? The magnetism of his work is curious and inexplicable. What is it that makes it so attractive? I wish I knew.

As the holidays approach and the weather is changing from 'summer' back to dull and cold, you may be considering a day out to see Percy's paintings! We are open Good Friday, Easter Saturday and Easter Monday 10.30 - 5.00 and would love to see you and your family or visitors. The exhibition is still totally intact  and continues until 23rd April despite loads of red spots. Unless buyers live in Vladivostok or have a 100 year anniversary we try to hold on and ask them to wait to carry home their prize so that everyone can see and enjoy it. So don't miss it. 

See you soon I hope.

We began demurely at a small gem of a show in the Courtauld. The central courtyard was transformed from ice rink to garden - an installation of riotous plaster flowers - a tribute to spring blessed by summer temperatures. In the smallest of our four exhibitions Ben Nicholson stood cheek to cheek with Mondrian. Nicholson owes much to Mondrian whose work sings out loud and clear - a purer tune than Nicholson's early struggles with abstraction.

Next morning at 9am found me in the queue for the Freud at the National Portrait Gallery. Despite planning ahead, strugging with pre-booking and turning up early, there was still a mad scramble on the strike of ten. But isn't it great that so many people are going to exhibitions these days. Gallery- going is fast becoming our major national pastime. Despite extra opening hours, there were too many people for comfort. Freud was a genius. His work takes your breath away. His technique is laborious and faultless but there is so much flesh; more raw flesh than Smithfield market. And his sitters are miserable especially the women. His wives, mistresses, children exude misery whether posing in excruciating positions or lying on mattresses with dogs and crumpled paper. After two hours of jostling for position we came out blinking into the sunshine shaking off depression but agreeing it was a triumph.

'If it's Thursday it must be Picasso' I said to myself as I woke with visual overload. Surprisingly this was the most absorbing of all. Each room interleaved Picasso with major British artists he met and influenced from the Bloomsbury set, through Nicholson, Henry Moore, Sutherland, Bacon and Hockney finishing with The Dancers. This stimulating journey through Modern British Art changed my perspective on them all.

Oh how we looked forward to Hockney day! It did not disappoint. The scale, the colour, the originality, the observation, the attention to detail. Nothing has been left to chance. it flows from room to room with surprising vistas framed by doorways to things already seen from things waiting to be seen. I've spent much time on the Yorkshire wolds and I never saw them like this. But I hadn't looked hard enough. Hockney teaches us how to look. He uses every new bit of technology he can lay hands on and gives us magic. He faces us with a huge screen and brilliant nine camera movies of a country lane, hedgerows through the seasons, blossom and bare trees, logs and tree stumps - all in glorious Hockney colour. He filmed members of The Royal Ballet dancing in his massive industrial unit studio in Bridlington. Bridlington must wonder what has hit it. It has been all chips and candy floss for decades and now it's under the spotlight. It has become famous for Hockney. Two wonderful hours had passed before our exit through the gift shop, Euston and the train back to the green stuff.

I don' t know how the organisers of Words by the Water manage to persuade these great speakers to come up here. I'd love to see Kay Dunbar's address book. Maybe our stunning landscape, beautiful theatre and good hotel help along with her powers of persuasion and the promise of an informed intellegent audience..

Highlights of the festival for me were Bill Feaver talking about The Pitmen Painters, Martin Gayford showing me the latest i-pad painting he had just received from Hockney (flowers on a window sill), a man who has increased my awareness of clouds and the man who broke into Auschwitz (now an articulate 93 year old). Lunch with Kathie Lette with a megaphone antipodean voice and an impossibly short skirt will be hard to forget. She loved the Kelly paintings and shot off clutching the Percy Kelly biography threatening to return in a few weeks to write an outdoor piece on this part of the Lake District. I can't visualise her in hiking boots somehow - she's more a champagne in the Savoy type of person.

The Kelly exhibition has been an added attraction and the etchings are selling well.  Some of the editions of 75 are now more than half sold. More than half the paintings now have red spots on them but don't despair, there are some beauties left. (see the web page on www,castlegatehouse.co.uk) The exhibition in both the theatre and Castlegate House continues until 23rd April so there is a good chance to see it. The theatre is open daily 09.30 - 20.00 and the gallery is back to Friday, Saturday, Monday opening.

At 1030 they all rushed in, the red spots went up and the telephone rang continuously. By 11.00 we had sold 30 paintings and the successful new owners were in the warm kitchen or standing in front of the fire in the Adam Room congratulating each other. Messages were passing back and forth from Keswick where luckily the queue there got her choice as well. Once again it had all worked out. Sadly a few of the absentee bidders were unlucky and I had to break the news later.

This happens every time we have a Kelly exhibition. E achtime I think it can't go on and each time I think it must be the last time I will gather together so much quality, desirable work by this genius. Maybe this time it really is. It is almost 20 years since his death. Can there be any more out there waiting to be discovered?

That evening I gave my talk in the Main House and showed video footage of Percy, images of his work and many people who knew him talking about him on film. What a day it had been. I fell into bed exhausted - looking forward to the next 10 days of the Festival.

For those ten days the theatre becomes  a hub of culture.A tide of people ebb and flow in and out of the main theatre and studio excitedly discussing and appraising the speakers. You can suddenly encounter a well known face - like Alistair Darling, Timothy Spall, Pru Leith or Melvyn Bragg on the stairs or at the bookstall.

Everyone is enjoying the  Kelly exhibition there which is in both the Friends' Gallery and the Circle Gallery. The etchings are selling very fast so it is good to have an edition of 75 to go at. However please note that the Circle Gallery is closed at lunch time during the festival (12.15 - 2.30) because the writers have their lunch up there. Try to time it so that you avoid that time please.

I am at the theatre every day for a few hours to deal with any queries. Angie is manning Castlegate which is open every day except Sunday for the duration of the Festival. The exhibition at both continues until 23rd April and there are still some cracking paintings and drawings which remain unsold. The sold paintings will not be taken away until the end of the show so you can see and enjoy it all.

'Is Pompey playing at home this Saturday?' I casually asked my son Peter who lives in Cumbria but supports this failing southern Football Team. It was my sons' home team in their teenage years when we lived on the Isle of Wight. The offer of a decent ticket, a couple of tanks of petrol and a night in a B&B did the trick and the paintings arrived yesterday afternoon after a round trip in excess of 700 miles. I forgot to ask whether his team won but the paintings look superb. What a difference a frame makes. It can't make a bad painting any better but it can make a good painting look absolutely superb.

So you can view all our handywork on Thursday at the theatre 9.30 am - 8.00 pm and at the gallery 6 - 8pm. This is viewing only. We already have a substantial Wish List and I get the feeling that there will be a crowd on the doorstep early Friday when we start selling at 10.30 am. The superb article in The Guardian Review on Saturday has generated a lot of interest and excitement among people now just discovering Percy. My in-box is stashed with queries.

I've spent almost 20 years getting him to this position and regret not one minute. I'm looking forward to talking about that journey on Friday evening at 8pm. Oh yes - and I've still to put that presentation together as well. It's going to be a busy week I guess.

March 2nd marks the first day of the 10 day festival which is full of interest. Martin Gayford is back this year talking about his conversations with David Hockney, William Feaver is talking about The Pitmen Painters of Ashington and there is much much more. There are politicians and poets, scientists and economists, novelists and adventurers. All human life is there and the theatre will be buzzing with people, books and new ideas.
Martin Bell has turned to poetry to express his views on politics, life and everything else on Sunday 11 March at 2pm. Always worth listening to: a man of integrity.
JUST HEARD : The star of cinema and television, Timothy Spall, (Peter Pettigrew in Harry Potter, Winston Churchill in The King’s Speech – and loads more) will join his wife Shane Spall at her event on Sunday 4 March, 6.30pm, The Spalls Sail Away, to talk about their sailing odyssey  which was shown on BBC4.

You can see the full programme for Words by the Water on the Ways with Words web site.

So you know what to do - buy The Guardian on Saturday and book up for the theatre. tell your friends as well.

According to the feedback we're getting; you like the paintings, you want to see them and you'd like to own them. I feel the same but sadly I must let them go.  Why does Percy have this effect on us? What is the secret ingredient that makes them so special?

You will be able to view them on Thursday 1st March at the theatre from 9.30 am - 8.00 pm and at Castlegate House between 6.00 and 8.00pm. that same evening.  The catalogue (£10 on sale at the theatre bookstall and at Castlegate) has the price list which indicates those at the theatre which are marked with a T and at Castlegate with a C.

We begin selling at 10.30 on the morning of Friday 2nd March. I'll be at Central Control with crew at Castlegate House (sounds like Star ship Enterprise!) and Angie and co will be at Theatre by the Lake. All requests made at the theatre will be relayed through to Castlegate to make sure we don't sell anything twice. To make our job more challenging, mobiles don't work in the theatre  but there will be someone out on the pavement ringing the gallery (or using semaphore or carrier pigeons). For those who can't make it in person we can put you on our Wish List in advance - like right now.  Ring or e mail to find out how that works.

Friday March 2nd will be a big day. You are invited to the official opening of the Festival and Kelly exhibition in the Circle Gallery at Theatre by the Lake Keswick at 6.00 pm. (RSVP  admin@wayswithwords.co.uk)  My talk follows later at 8.00 pm. Although I have given several talks about Percy this is quite different. It is about discoveries made while writing his biography.  I have some new film footage and superb images as well as a few more stories. There are still some seats left.

This is just the beginning of 10 days packed with interesting speakers, books and ideas. Look on the Words by the Water web site for the full programme and take your pick. There is plenty to choose from.

The exhibition is now up on our web site www,castlegatehouse.co.uk/exhibitions. The range is wide, there are some larger works, the time span  borders on 50 years and there are quite a few works from his time in Wales, Brittany, Cornwall and Norfolk. When researching his biography I managed to gather quite a few treasures in - paintings I'd never seen before. Summer Flowers, illustrated above, is a Roberta painting made while he was in a more optimistic mood.

The 50 page colour catalogue illustrating all the works in the exhibition is arriving from the printers this week (£10 including postage). We can mail one out to you.

The fun will begin at 10.30 that Friday morning (2nd March) when the scramble to buy will commence. We will have staff with red dots and clipboards at both venues to deal with requests. All sales will go through at Castlegate House but you can buy from either venue at either venue. You don't have to actually be there standing in front of your choice. You can telephone if you wish.

At 6.00 that evening you are invited to the Opening of the Words by the Water Festival of Literature and Ideas in the Circle Gallery at the theatre.

At 8.00 after the opening when you've had time for a leisurely browse round the exhibition, I will be giving a talk in the Main House about writing the biography of PercyKelly with some new video footage and an appraisal of some of the work in the exhibition. There are still some tickets left @ £8.50. 017687 74411. The full festival programme can be seen at www.wordsbythewater.org.uk.

I know this is complicated but I'm sure you'll work it out.

^{There were many new faces; people who had received a Kelly catalogue from the gallery and found the pull of Percy difficult to resist. This is his second solo show in London and it is a resounding success. The paintings span a variety of subjects - landscapes of Brittany, Cornwall, Wales as well as Cumbria and a few interesting still lives. What an artist he was. I wonder what he would have thought about it all had he been in that crowded room.}

^{EXIT THROUGH THE GIFT SHOP}

^{On the subject of crowded rooms - we were so excited to have a once in a lifetime chance to see the unique Leonardo da Vinci exhibition at The National Gallery. This multi talented genius, a man of ideas who lived and worked centuries ahead of his time completed very few paintings. Entry numbers are being tightly controlled we were told. Sadly this doesn't appear to be working. They are letting too many people in, the small rooms allocated are packed solid and irritation levels are high as people strain and fall over each other to see the tiny exquisite pencil drawings. It was even difficult to get a clear view of the oils which were thrilling. The portraits, especially Lady with an Ermine, outshone the most famous painting in the world - his Mona Lisa.}

^{The exhibition is in two parts so after fighting ones way out through the gift shop there is a lift to the next floor and a walk through many galleries hung with the permanent collection - room after room of them . A queue to get through the next barrier and gain admittance to Part Two led to two more crowded rooms throbbing with people and full size reproductions of The Last Supper; Leonardo's greatest masterpiece mural and his biggest mistake as he failed to prime the raw plaster on the wall and the original has all but disappeared. However, it was worth the effort and hassle but one needs to be patient, able bodied and have about two hours to spend to wait for gaps in the crowd to view.}

^{In contrast the Grayson Perry at The Britsh Museum is a delight. It is well thought through, beautifully displayed, labelled and signed and comfortable to walk through in a relaxed civilised manner. It made me laugh and filled me with awe at his depth of vision and the choices he had made from the museums vast stores. The tomb of the Unknown Craftsman pays homage to all the people through the ages from the beginning of time who have crafted objects with such care,skill and thought. it is a hymn to art and truth and a condemnation of exploitation and commercialism in our modern society. Not everything is what it seems. More than an hour just flew by. We came out in thoughtful mode - just as it should be.}

^{An artist has the power to change the way we see the world. Both these exhibitions certainly did just that. We'll soon be back down for the Hockney and Hirst. Now there's a contrast!}

To begin with we are all off to London for the launch of The man who couldn't stop drawing on Tuesday 10th January at Messums Gallery in Cork Street (behind the Royal Academy). I will be signing copies that evening from 6.30 pm. This will also mark the opening of a new Kelly exhibition there and the launch of an edition of 10 of his etchings. This will be his second solo show in London. What a shame he could never enjoy an exhibition of his work. The very thought would throw him into panic and depression.

The exhibition continues until January 28th. If you can make the opening on the 10th you will need an invitation to get past the bouncers on the door. Ring Messums on 02074375545 and they will  make sure your name is on the list..

We will be packing in as much as we can in the time we are in the big city. (while giving Oxford Street a wide berth).  There is so much going on in January. We are going to see Lee Hall's play - The Pitmen Painters - about the Ashington Miners' further education class in a garden shed; the end of the Grayson Perry show - the tomb of the Unknown Craftsman at the British Museum; the opening of Hockney at the Royal Academy and as much more as time and energy allows.(which sadly excludes joining the queue for the Leonardos!)  We will alo be catching up with old friends before falling exhausted into the train at Euston and dozing our way back to the peace of the mountains.

Not for long though as I am putting together the catalogue for our own Kelly show which opens 2nd March at Theatre by the Lake in Keswick. In the meantime the gallery is open Saturdays only 10.30 - 4.00 through January and February.

Angel and the Gem Jars sounds like a pop group - and it is. It's the team who keep the gallery going. Angie is front (and back) of house and John and Gill are volunteers who cover when Angie and I are otherwise occupied. When I first sent out a joint e mail to them their initials GEM and JAR amused me - hence ths nick name. Sylvia meets and greets on Saturdays, keeps databases up to date and runs around town with messages. Michael brings cake and chocolate, wise words and laughter.

Photograph from the left; Chris, Michael, Tree, John, Angie and Gill. Saturday Sylvia wasn't available for the photo call so has her own solo image.

Two more shopping days to christmas. The highlight of our Christmas exhibition has been the Kelly suite of etchings. They are dark, beautiful and gritty images of Cumbria and make a lovely gift. (see all 10 on www.castlegatehouse.co.uk/percykellyetchings ) We can post them out 1st class. Better stll, join us  at the gallery on Christmas Eve for a drink and mince pie. 

Once the gallery year starts it gains its own momentum. This year has been a memorable one beginning with Kelly's 50 little gems and ending with the publishing of The man who couldn't stop drawing.  There have been some remarkable exhibitions and for this I thank my loyal and talented artists. Their contributions are key to our continuing success.

I wonder what next year will bring.  We will be opening Saturdays only from New Year's Eve until the end of February 10.30 - 4.00. If we have any really bad weather though during that time please ring or e mail first to make sure we can get through before you set out.  We reopen Fridays, saturdays and Mondays from 2nd March.

The London launch of the book is on 10th January with an accompanying exhibition at Messums in Cork Street.

There is a Kelly exhibition of new discoveries at Theatre by the Lake opening 2nd March - I am giving an illustrated talk in the Main House that evening. I can send you invitations to these events and a Words by the Water brochure of the whole ten day festival  - just let us know. The Literary Festival this year is packed with good things.

Thank you all for your interest and support this year. We have made new friends and kept contact with old ones with some memorable visits from reading groups and friends from abroad as well as all those people who have been at the talks I have given around the country.

We look forward to seeing you in 2012. We all wish you a happy, healthy and peaceful year to come.

chris and the team

Once upon a time many years ago when I was young and beautiful (I'm being over imaginative here) I stayed with a friend in Wiltshire. She had just acquired two new paintings - interesting, sensitive figure paintings in oils. They were by an artist called John Emanuel. I'd never heard of him but was determined to track him down. She had bought them at an exhibition in the Cotswolds. But he was elusive. I couldn't find him no matter how hard I tried.

On a September evening more than a year later I was out on my bike after the gallery closed speeding round the lanes, letting go of the day. I passed a woman who came to the gallery occasionally sitting in the garden of her house.

'Would you like a G&T?' she called waving her glass. 'You look a bit thirsty..'

Could I resist that?

Through the open door of her lovely old cottage I could just see two large paintings hanging in her kitchen. This must be magic.

'Hey, John Emanuel!' I called, ''Where did you get those?. I've been searching for him for ages.'

'He's a friend' came the reply. 'he comes up here and stays every christmans He always comes into your gallery. Didn't you know? You've met him many times. He loves Castlegate. He always comes back full of what he's seen.'

'Well ask him to introduce himself next time.'

O come O come Emanuel I prayed - and he did - the following Christmas Eve. Quiet, modest, he shyly introduced himself. He had brought some paintings with him but he would never have got them out unless I had asked.  I have been showing his work ever since.

He will turn up once again this Saturday - Christmas Eve - and we''ll catch up with his year and ours in front of the fire with a glass of wine and a mince pie.  He will have brought a clutch of paintings with him. It has become a tradition. He sees figures in our Cumbrian fells; lying by lakes, blending into valleys and frozen into fellsides. I see them too now. From my window I can see a woman lying on the hillside. Her head points upwards gazing at the summit of Skiddaw. Her shoulder juts into the col. Her slim waist is delineated by a dip into a small valley. Her breasts form two shallow mounds. Her right hip rises into the spur, nestling a little dark wood in the groove and her tapering legs and feet disappear into the grassy hillock of the lower slopes.

I see this woman from the window every day, lying there on that rocky spur. Ii's like a puzzle where you have to find a hidden object in a picture and once you have found it, it is hard to ignore. It jumps out at you all the time. It is an artist’s role to change our perception of things. John Emanuel has done this irrevocably for me. I shall never again wander the fells without seeing figures moulded into our mountains and lakes.

We are open from  10.30 on Saturday but the wine and mince pies come out about two o'clock. Many of our friends and artists will drop in and John and his partner Janet will arrive at some point.You too are invited to start christmas with us .Drop in and see us. You never know who you might see.

An interesting development I didn't forsee is that the slip case edition is so lovely that lucky owners want to keep it in pristine condition and are sneaking back to buy an ordinary copy to read in the train, in bed or in the bath

On Saturday 17th December I will be in Waterstones in Kendal signing and chatting from 10.30 am. The staff there are lovely and friendly so it should be a fun day. Even if you already have the book, come in and see me anyway.  I was handing out jelly beans last time when I did a Hercules signing so maybe that's why I've been invited back.  Abbot Hall just down the road also have it in the gallery shop and will welcome your support.

Thank you for all your responses to my Turner prize adventure. I forgot to mention the self-styled Liverpool Streaker in a pink tutu (so how could he be a streaker?) who tried to get on to the podium at the announcement of the winner. He completey failed to attract the attention he wanted but quickly found himself performing alone in a Gateshead police cell.

In the last few hours of 1995 I stood on the Quayside in Newcastle with hundreds of others anticipating the arrival of 1996 The Year of the Visual Arts. We looked across the Tyne to Gateshead and the derelict Baltic Flour Mill where images  of highlights for the coming year in the Northern Region.were projected on a giant screen  Fourcontemporary Indian painters suddenly appeared on screen with the gallery and me heralding our coming exhibition. It was exciting to be part of this.
In 1998 I pushed my grandson Jo in his pushchair into that same Mill now gutted and roofless. It had been filled with a massive red plastic trumpet sculpture by Anish Kapoor called Tarantarantara. We stood below and looked at the sky through openings in the trumpet shape and then picked our way out through unmade roads and industrial workshops and detritus which littered the river side. I left with a feeling that we were on the edge of something important.

Last night I stood on the 6th floor of that same building looking across the water to  the twinkling lights of Newcastle and its regenerated prosperous Quayside. The Sage was lit up like a giant igloo sparkling in the frost and a trip to the glass cantilevered ladies loo was a vertiginous gravity defying experience. (The best view in Newcastle and only accessible to 50% of the population). It was an emotional moment as I thought about how some of those mill workers would feel seeing their place of work transformed into a centre for contemporary art. I bet they would laugh at the whole concept of the Turner Prize.' £25,000 for that' I could hear them say.!

I looked around the room crowded with glitterati - picking out old friends and well known faces. It was a bitterly cold evening with several hundred VIP guests some of whom had ventured far north of their comfort zone as we watched as a self deprecating Martin Boyce, acceped the prize from photographer Mario Testino for his sculptural installation which filled and transformed the whole of his allocated room . It was hard and architectural softened by falling leaves - a park bench in Autumn? A piece of abstraction. It is whatever you want it to be. An astonishing 110,000 people have visited the exhibition, many have expressed an opinion on the wall of the cafe - they were encouraged to do this - and there were some very frank comments.

This was only the second time since it began that the Turner Prize had been held outside London - the other was when it was held at Tate Liverpool a few years agol. This was a great honour for Gateshead and The Baltic. In my five years on the Board of Northern Arts we oversaw, not just the dramatic transformation of the Baltic Flour Mill but the birth of the Angel of the North, the Sage music cemtre and the Blinking Bridge among  many other quieter, less famous things. It was a golden period for public art and a golden period for the north.

The Turner Prize is always controversial wherever it is held and in the run up to the announcement of the winner there was a buzz of discussion about relative merits of the works. I didn't care for the room packed with recycled paper by Karla Black nor Hilary Lloyd's flickering video screens but I did enjoy George Shaw's raw ironic paintings of the housing estate of his childhood in Coventry made in Humbrol model paints. An art prize, however prestigious, should make people look and think. It should always include the smell of paint as far as I'm concerned. 

Thank you to all those who have pre-ordered the book. The postal requests will be sent  out on Monday 21st provided you have sent your payment and address to which they must be sent. Those who have opted to collect from the gallery can do so from the 19th November. Orders for the special slip cased edition of 75 have now reached over 50. Our postal mail-out will be going out at the end of this week so you newsletter people have had the edge. We had to wait for a definite delivery date before we could print invitations to the launch. So there is still time to orderahead of the pack if you are quick.

The London launch will be 10th January at Messums, 8 Cork Street  6.00 - 8.00. I will be there that evening signing. There will also be an exhibition of Percy's work at the gallery.

The photograph above was taken in Workington in 1932 when Percy joined the postal service as a telegraph boy aged 14. He is the one on the left. It is strange to think that when the shutter clicked he had no idea what was in store in his future life - his prospects were narrow, his ambition  and experience limited. - unaware the photograph would appear more than 80 years later in his published biography.

It's a sobering thought.

Because it is such a beautiful book the publishers have decided to make a special slip cased edition of only 75 which will be numbered and signed and will sell at £120. Each of these will contain an original Kelly etching pulled from one of his plates of a Cumbrian village. This can either be kept in the book or removed and framed. We are taking pre orders for these and expect them to sell out quickly.

Either of these options will make a special Christmas gift.

This is the blurb on the back cover

Percy Kelly began to draw as soon as he could hold a pencil. He didn't draw like a child. He had an innate understanding of perspective, draughtmanship and balance. He drew or painted every day of his life even through his army service in the second world war often in defiance of orders to send his materials home. In his first job in the postal service he would draw on the backs of envelopes he was about to deliver until there was a complaint from one recipient. He drew on plastic plates in hospital. He drew on the back of cereal packets and envelopes. He drew and painted on anything in his orbit. It was a compulsion. A day without drawing plunged him into depression. It was as necessary to his health as eating and drinking.

He was always reluctant to sell any of his efforts. He liked them all around him which meant when he died in 1993 aged 76, he had a cottage stuffed with paintings and drawings, prints and letters. He preferred to live in poverty than sell any work. He hated exhibiting his work.

Chris Wadsworth brought his life's work back to his native Cumberland and has been his champion, building his reputation from nothing. In the last 18 years she has gathered information from many sources, built it up piece by piece like a jigsaw and now is ready to tell the story of the extraordinary life of Percy Kelly which began in a terrace house in Workington, Cumbria, through Cornwall and Brittany to a derelict house in Pembrokeshire and a cottage in the backwoods of Norfolk. On that journey he discussed art with the Prime Minister Winston Churchill during air raids, shook hands with King George VI at the National Gallery and dined with members of the Royal family. He corresponded with some of the highest in the land and ended up lonely and confused in a cottage in Norfolk surrounded by his beloved collection of work.

brendaquakerfold@btinternet.com.

£5 for members and £6 non members. Everyone is welcome. (The gallery is unable to book places so please get in touch with Brenda.)

It promises to be an interesting afternoon.

But there is a consolation. We will then be hanging a new exhibition of paintings by Helen Tabor. This is her fourth solo show at Castlegate House. She has lived in the Scottish Borders with her partner and three children for more than twenty years. She graduated in 1981 from York University, travelled widely to India and Bhutan where she did voluntary work. Having gained her post graduate certificate of education in York in 1984, she taught Art, Drama and English first at Boroughbridge School in North Yorkshire and then at Paro High School in Bhutan.

Like most artists we show, Helen is moving on and developing new ideas.There are new exciting landscapes, some evocative romantic figurative paintings and some fascinating still lives. You get a taste of this on the web site. go to the exhibitions page, scroll down and enjoy.

Our Friday night openings have proved very popular - well attended and enjoyable. Helen will be with us on Friday 14th October from 6.00 - 8.00pm. Come and have a glass of wine and meet her.

Our Norweigian friend bought his first Kelly, spotted on our web site 2 years ago making the same special pilgrimage. His second was posted in an appropriate canister which had contained a bottle of Scapa single malt whisky. But the Scapa had flowed and the empty tube came in handy.

The first painting to sell on the opening day of the Bennett show was by Michael Bennett and is also going to make a long journey - to Washington DC. The purchaser has not yet seen it and has acquired it by the magic of the web and e mails.

The Bennett show is roaring along. There are a few things left; see the exhibitions page of the web site www.castlegatehouse.co.uk and see the red spots. You'll have to be quick to secure one.

If the genii of the lamp appeared in my office with 2 wishes, the top of the long list would be superfast broadband and a cumbrian airport no matter how small and limited. Tourists and IT dinosaurs love this place for its peace and quaintness but to run an international business here is frustrating at times. I wouldn't want to live anywhere else BUT we do need efficient tools to exist and compete in such isolation so far from the capital.

I suppose I want it all - but it's good to dream.

What is the magnetism of Percy's work? I call it THE KELLY EFFECT. I see it happening to people who have never seen his work before and have never heard of him. They sleep-walk into possesing one. It is a compulsion.

The summer exhibition is roaring alomg with new things arriving as fast as other things go out. A new batch of work by Karen Wallbank is now at the framers, some new landscapes by Helen Tabor arrived last week and we have some large oils from a new artist, Malcolm Wilson who is fascinated by clouds.(there are some tiny ones as well). He is an architect in his day job but occasionally has his head in the clouds. I will get those on the web site soon for you to see. And of course we do have just a few Kellys.

We are open Bank Holiday weekend - Friday, Saturday and Monday as usual and it will be great to see you if you are in the vicinity - or decide to make a trip. We have an excellent B&B only a few doors away at 6 Castlegate. There's always so much going on round here but then you can escape into the hills. It's not raining at the moment!

Winifred died thirty years ago and her work is increasingly in demand. Recently a similar sized oil, Sea Treasures, came up for auction in London and fetched a staggering £147,000. This one is a fraction of the price . - a bargain then?

As I write other work is coming in for the Summer Exhibition. Let's hope we have a summer to go with it.

Karen Wallbank is back on form. I just received three large odd shaped parcels wrapped in wallpaper and gaffer tape. It's always exciting opening Karen's mad offerings because we never know what we will find. This one is treasure - full of misty landscapes on canvas and flocks of sheep on card. We've had a scramble to get them framed. She will be in the gallery on Saturday if you want to meet her. She has a droll sense of humour so there will be much laughter I imagine.

Alistair Tucker, who is a printmaker and painter, has contributed an interesting selection of work. There are some delicate porcelain pots from Sue Paretskove and new pots from William Plumptre. We are awaiting some new work from Sarah Carrington who hasn't exhibited with us for some years. She has been producing children not paintings and moved to Ireland but she is now back on form with some Irish seascapes and coastal landscapes to add to her studies of Scotland. I will put her images up on the web site www.castlegatehouse.co.uk as soon as I get them.

We hang on Thursday so hope to see you this weekend or during the summer - It goes on until 5th September.

COCKERMOUTH LIVE!

Where will you find a live artist, live music and a sonic garden this Saturday? Cockermouth of course

Douglas Davies - our current exhibitionist - will be in the gallery meeting people and talking about his work. He has just got back from France where he does much of his painting. See his work on www.castlegatehouse.co.uk/exhibitions

And - I hardly dare write this in case it upsets the Sun God again - there will be more live music in the garden depending on the weather of course. There will be music all over the town; in Wordsworth House, Jennings' Brewery, The Memorial Gardens and Toy Shop Alley (not to be confused withTin Pan Alley!) to name a few venues for Cockermouth Live! There will be no escape. There will be a Sonic Garden in the Market Place 11 - 4.00 when you can experiment in making music yourself. - sounds interesting and noisy? There will be something for everyone in the town including the tone deaf.- erm especially for the tone deaf maybe.

We begin at the gallery with ambient jazz by ESP at 1.00, vocalist Annemarie Quinn at 2.00 and accoustic rock with Kitchie Wood at 3.00. There will be a bar. More details on www.cockermouthfestival.org.

Jazz on a Summer afternoon last Sunday was sadly relocated in the Kirkgate. Despite erecting a gazebo in the garden to protect the band, the sky was black and foreboding - and it was cold. Organiser Bob Pritchard who works so hard for the town was determined it should be in the garden but was overruled by the band when they arrived who insisted they needed to keep their instruments dry. They were proved right as it got colder and a bit drizzly as the afternoon went on.

Chris

Douglas Davies was once head of ceramics at Glasgow School of Art - a prestigious post which he gave up to pot and paint full time. He had a few exhibitions here at Castlegate House in the past but he is now just painting and loving it.

In the true Scottish tradition he revels in colour. He travels extensively in Europe so in this solo show, his first here for some years, he is showing Scottish landscapes combined with Paris, Brittany and Spain. Have a look on the exhibitions page of our web site www.castlegatehouse.co.uk. you'll see what I mean.

Having hung the show we are off to Liverpool to soak up more culture. The primary incentive is an exhibition of photographs by Don McPhee, a guardian photographer who died in 2007. His marvellous collection of specially selected highlights of his work has been gifted to Liverpool Hope University and we are off to the opening which gives us the excuse to see what else is on offer in this city of exceptional tallent and imagination. It's not all football and Beatles!

Chris

Chris

Mary Fedden is just coming up to her 96th birthday, I have known her since our days in Bristol in the seventies. She has now become a National Treasure and her work, particularly that done in the Eighties, is cherished.

The Patricia Sadler exhibition opened quietly and is moving slowly. This is nothing to do with the quality of work which is excellent but more to do with following the hectic four weeks of Percy Kelly frenzy. Patricia herself is modest and quiet but don't overlook her show. It is worth seeing and a refreshing contrast to the ebullient Kelly.

Chris

The gallery has hardly been empty of visitors for 5 weeks and we could have sold many several times. I am so pleased that the catalogue gives a lasting record of the whole show because it is now disappearing in all directions and will never be seen together all in one place again. (we still have some catalogues left - 52 colour pages £10 inc postage as a lasting aide memoire)

And now we are hanging the Patricia Sadler exhibition which opens on Friday. If anyone can withstand following Percy (and is brave enough) then it is Patricia. Her landscapes and flower studies in acrylic on canvas as well as her pure watercolours are confident and accomplished. They are a joy to see.

She lives in the Scottish Borders between the Cheviot and the sea and draws on both for subject matter. She was among the first people I pursued in 1986 when getting an exhibition together to open the gallery in 1987. She was doing pale delicate watercolours which I loved.

Over the years we have moved on and grown up together. Her work has become stronger and more complex. Her development of acrylics on canvas using the fluidity of the medium is an interesting move.

Have a look at her exhibition in full on the web page www.castlegatehouse.co.uk/patricia-sadler-exhibition.html

Patricia will be in the gallery next Saturday 7th to talk about her work.

The weather is looking good. The garden is open with a mist of wisteria and blossom showing off the sculpture.

Come and see us.

Chris

The Kelly exhibition is proving very popular and there are still a few left. (not many though) look for the ones without red dots on our web site. We have just got a new one of Newlands Valley for sale from a family member. It's astonishing how these Kellys just keep turning up. Working on his biography has given me a deeper insight into his life - if he had a day without painting or drawing he was unhappy and depressed.

We are open throughout Easter; - Good Friday, Easter Saturday and Easter Monday and also The Wedding Day and Bank Holiday Monday. No street parties for us!

We have a new collection of pots from William Plumptre and the garden will be open if fine where we have some new sculpture by Daniel Clehane in Portland stone and a new bronze - New Dawn - which greets the sunrise every morning in memory of Penelope Van De Havre, a client and friend who died last November and gave it to us for the garden...

Let's hope the sun keeps on shining.

Chris

I had an intimation at the packed viewing the evening before that it was going to be a success. There was an enthusiastic buzz of anticipation. After everyone had gone, a group of us relaxed over a glass or three and thought up a few April Fools pranks like going round and moving the paintings or numbers about. Even worse we considered putting red spots on every one or announcing that a London dealer had bought them all. But that would have been too cruel. Sanity prevailed.

After all the mad stampede had ended, a friend strolled calmly in and made her purchase. She liked them all and found it impossible after the viewing to decide which one to buy - so she let the field narrow which then made it easier to choose.

There are a few left, have a look at the web site to see which remain un-spotted. I also kept back the 4 illustrated here which are now available to the disappointed. Ring or e mail us for details.

The whole exhibition is here intact until May 2nd so come in and enjoy. We are open every Friday, Saturday and Monday 10.30 - 5.00 including Easter Bank Holidays and weddings. Come and experience some of the Percy magic.

Chris

This is real treasure and forms part of a new exhibition opening at the gallery on Friday 1st April called Fifty Little Gems. They are all shown on the web site. E-mail us for a price list.

This is not my first find in my last few months of research but it is the biggest and most surprising (so far!). Percy lost a lot of his precious work in his first divorce in 1970 so when he was going through his second divorce in 1983 he was paranoid about losing any more.

He parcelled up small collections and gave them to friends to keep for him and promptly forgot about some of them - and so did the friends. He was poor and ill and suffering from depression. He gave a similar box to his elder sister Sally who died in Workington just before he did in 1993 but this has never been found. It was probably destroyed in the house clearance.

Added together with my other recent finds I realised I had more than 50 of these little gems which would make a superb exhibition. There is a 50 page catalogue available in which each is illustrated. (£10)

We are having an evening viewing on Thursday 31st March 6.00 - 8.00 to which you are invited. The exhibition opens to the public at 10.30 next day - Friday 1st April. Nothing will be sold before then.

To make it fair we will accept sales by e mail and telephone as well as personal callers. We know there are collectors coming from Moscow, Norway, Edinburgh and London. Kelly has now grown way beyond his native Cumbria. After his exhibitions in London as well as at Castlegate House his reputation is now firmly set as a 20th Century British artist of some importance.

Maybe there are more little gems waiting to be discovered.

The biography will be published towards the end of this year - unless I find a lot more material, letters and people who knew him. Each discovery leads on to more. There is no end to this genius of an artist.

Come and see this breathtaking exhibition. Open Fridays, Saturdays and Mondays 10.30 - 5.00

­Chris

Our Curator's Choice exhibition has been enthusiastically applauded with plenty of red spots both at the theatre in The Friends' Gallery and at Castlegate House. This continues in both places until 28th March. Don't miss it.

My talk The Hitch Hiker's Guide to the Gallery went down well and the strap line in the Keswick Reminder (our very own tabloid newspaper) was Anyone can run a gallery says Chris Wadsworth.

There you go - you know what to do!

Excitement is building for Percy Kelly's 50 little gems with catalogues winging their way across the world. We will send one to you post free for £10.

Chris

The gallery is now back to Friday, Saturday, Monday opening after the winter break. Next week we are open Tuesday and Wednesday as well because of the Literary Festival.

This attracts a huge crowd of arts lovers who take a break from the talks for a walk by the Lake, in the town or a trip to the gallery. The Friends' Gallery at the theatre is open every day 9.00 - 21.00.

We have hung Blackadder and Rae, Kelly and Fell, Nicholson and Kyffin Williams and many more. Most of the works on show are for sale - there are just one or two I can't bear to part with.

For those of you within range, don't forget my talk A hitch hiker's guide to the gallery on Saturday at 2-15 at the theatre. You will find out how a commercial gallery works and sometimes how it doesn't.

I walked into this by chance 25 years ago and have 'hitch hiked' my way through with the help of artists, clients, friends and family and my worthy assistants.

Have a look at the web site and enjoy.

Chris

When I was asked to give a talk at this year's Words by the Water Festival I was given carte blanche to cover any subject I fancied. Having given several talks about particular artists in past years, I decided that this year I would talk about the perils and pleasures of running a gallery. A Hitch hikers guide to the gallery will give an insight into what is involved and some of the strange encounters, exciting experiences and friendships made. That is at 2-15pm in the studio on Saturday 5th March.

The exhibition in The Friends' Gallery at the theatre and at Castlegate House will feature artists who have been my personal favourites over the past 24 years. Some sadly are no longer with us and I miss them terribly, others are very much alive and well and painting better than ever. The image above is Kyffin Williams who died in 2006. This large oil was exhibited in the Royal Academy Summer Exhibition 2007 as a tribute and memorial to the artist.

You will be able to see work by some of the monumental figures of 20th century British art like Winifred Nicholson, Sheila Fell, Kyffin Williams, Mary Fedden, Terry Frost, Barbara Rae and Percy Kelly. You will see popular gallery artists and newcomers to Castlegate. Keep an eye on our website as I put things up on there. It will keep changing as I add to it.

The literary Festival this year promises to be outstanding. For 10 years it has brought a variety of well known names from the world of politics, the media and literature to Keswick. For 10 days you are likely to bump into Joan Bakewell in Boots, or Martin Bell in the newsagent. This year we have Raymond Blanc, Maureen Lipman, Melvyn Bragg, John Snow the Duchess of Devonshire and hosts more. The big names flock here because they like the spectacular venue.

You will find the programme on www.wordsbythewater.org.uk. Bookings for any of the events can be made through the theatre 017687 74411.

The exhibition Curator's Choice runs from 4th - 28th March. The theatre is open daily 9.00 - 9.00 and Castlegate House every Friday, Saturday and Monday. (additional opening during the Festival)

Hope to see you then.

Chris

Our mail list is now world wide thanks largely to the books about the gallery and the brilliance of our stable of artists so I can keep in touch in one swoop with clients in Moscow, Norway, India and the US just to mention a few and all you other wonderful people who take an interest in what we are up to at the gallery.

I am gearing up at the moment for Words by the Water at Theatre by the Lake in Keswick which begins 4th March for ten days. The programme this year is varied and exciting with talks by Raymond Blanc, the Duchess of Devonshire, our chairman Melvyn Bragg and his friends, Martin Gayford - the man in the blue scarf who sat for Lucien Freud - and many more.

My illustrated talk whimsically titled A hitch hiker's guide to the gallery is on Saturday 5th March @ 2.30 when I will be talking about setting up the gallery and running it for twenty five years - with illustrations! There will be stories which weren't included in Hercules and the farmer's wife. Tickets for all the events can be purchased from Theatre by the Lake - but hurry because things sell out quickly.

Castlegate House is mounting an exhibition in the Friends' Gallery at the theatre called Curator's Choice which is pure self indulgence but after 25 years maybe that is permitted. It will extend into the gallery as well because I have a lot of choices. More about that when I've sorted out my priorities. It is hard to choose as I have gathered so many favourites.

Oh and by the way - we sent a cheque for £1500 to our Mountain Rescue team as the result of sales of Christmas cards. Thank you everybody who ordered them. The hard working voluntary team were delighted.

Keep on looking and linking and I'll keep you up to speed with everything that's going on. If you're not signed up perhaps you'd like to and then you'll get the latest newsletter by e mail. Enjoy the web pages.

Chris

Red spots to indicate pieces sold were appearing everywhere as people arrived and appreciated the quality of the works on show. These span his life from powerful charcoal drawings made in the late fifties to Cornish harbours made when he taught at a summer school in Cornwall and colourful paintings of Brittany visited on a travel scholarship gained while at Carlisle college of Art. A magnificent painting of St David's Cathedral and colourful abstracted Welsh cliffs mark his eight years living in Pembrokeshire with bright sunflower paintings adding colour.

"It was wonderful to be there and see national recognition for Percy" says Chris Wadsworth of Castlegate House in Cockermouth who has championed Percy since his death in Norfolk in 1993. "In a letter to me in 1988 he wrote that he wanted recognition after his death, and I have delivered. It has taken a long time because he wouldn't let himself become famous in his lifetime. He hid his work away and refused all exhibition opportunities.

It was good to see so many of my London based clients including the couple who queued all night outside Castlegate House in 1998 to gain the Kelly of their choice.

Rosanna of The Purple House in Newlands who was at art college with Percy and her friend from Maryport walked in and Jean Baudrand, once director of Sekers Silk Mills in Whitehaven also came and gave me a lot of fascinating information about PK in the sixties which will add to his biography which I am currently writing.

Melvyn Bragg who also knew Kelly in his lifetime added even more Kudos to the opening as well as Kay Dunbar and Stephen Bristow who run Words by the Water in Keswick. Along with many of our London based clients and Messums contacts it made for an enjoyable and successful evening. The exhibition is certainly opening PK's work up to a much wider public."

Andrew Lambirth, Art Critic of The Spectator (17th January) wrote, under the headline MORE REAL ART PLEASE;

By way of complete contrast, I have no hesitation in recommending the work of Percy Kelly (1918-93). Kelly was a strange and somewhat tortured man who also happened to be a brilliant draughtsman. Not many people in his lifetime knew this because he refused to exhibit or sell his work, and used to hide it away if even an admiring visitor (such as L.S. Lowry) came to call; he was convinced that Lowry would steal his ideas. Born in Workington, Cumberland, Kelly managed to exile himself from his beloved home-county - partly through a temperamental inability to earn money - first to Pembrokeshire and finally to Norfolk. The best of Kelly's output is the grand series of powerfully mesmeric charcoal drawings he made in the late-1950s, mostly of landscape. They bear comparison with the cream of Sheila Fell's work (which he knew and admired), but have a solidity and conviction, an earthbound magic, which is all his own.

There was also an illustrated article by Ian Collins last Wednesday in the Eastern Daily Press. Percy Kelly's exquisite drawings and painting soar above the muddle and trauma of life in a final note of triumph. He wrote.

This is no FINAL note of triumph - the best is yet to come.

Contact Chris Wadsworth 07710 434443