Winter is unique. Admittedly, the same could be said of any season. However, winter is more unique, at least in the temperate Northern Hemisphere, which is the boundary of my mental landscape. After spring's emergence, summer's mania and autumn's fecundity - winter seems empty: a dry, hidden, huddled and bunkered sort of place. But in this glorious season, against such a sparse, still backdrop, the things that move, shake, run, and bloom are much brighter and worthy of note.

Angela Harding is a divine English printmaker who has captivated followers with her thick, rich, layered linocut prints. She's illustrated book covers, puzzles (I have them all), tea towels, book bags (ditto) and the like (shop here), but her first book, A Year Unfolding: A Printmaker's View, delivers the biggest impact: pages of light, colour, and intimate portraits of nature as it lays.

Stopping by the Woods.

I selected Harding's winter prints here because they are superb examples of the artist's work and winter's punch: a piercing red berry, a scant hare on a quick dash, a moonlight tree—hidden and silent things while green takes centre court.

Scottish Robins

A Winter's Tail

Cornwall is a place I have visited many times, but I have only been to the Scilly Isles once. I loved all the islands; each had a distinctive flavour and felt unique. This was February, so everywhere was quiet; we would walk all day and hardly see another person. When we first arrived, I was excited to visit Tresco and its famous gardens. I had also heard that there could be a chance of seeing red squirrels. Twenty red squirrels first arrived on Tresco in 2013 - they came from the mainland in an experiment to see if they would settle and breed. It has been a great success story: they have thrived, increasing their numbers to over a hundred. Tresco is the home of the Abbey sub-tropical gardens, established in the nineteenth century by Augustus Smith. The temperate climate means it is possible to grow a huge range of plants from all over the world. The summer season is very busy, but in February, there were only a few other visitors. Within minutes we spotted two ginger dots, which turned out to be two red squirrels feeding close to the gate where we had just entered. We watched them entranced, not daring to move, but then, as quickly as they had appeared, they were gone. We didn't see them again, but that day will stay with me as I had always wanted to visit Tresco and to see red squirrels.

A Winter's Tail.

We Three Hares 
 
Thick snow in Wing is rare - in the sixteen years we have lived here, it has only happened three times - but in 2020, we had one of those snowfalls that, in the course of one afternoon, turned Wing into a place of true magic. As the snow falls, I am instantly turned back into a child, and there is no point in trying to work - I want to be in that snow. It is never with us for long, so every moment is to be enjoyed. In my winter prints, I hope I convey the sense of excitement the snow gives me. In Winter Hare, you can see Mark and me trudging through the snow, watched by a wiry hare. This print is not accurate because, in truth, even when they were young, our two whippets would not go out in the cold without a coat.

We Three Hares.

Winter Partridge.

Holly Hedge  
  
The hedgerows in winter are particularly beautiful but they are also of great importance. They give shelter to our native birds that stay throughout the winter rather than migrate. Long-tailed tits can often be seen topping the hedgerows, and they team up with others from the tit family. In winter there is a distinctive medley of calls that marks out a gang of blue, great, marsh, coal and long-tailed tits that have clubbed together to feed. The long-tailed tits are often in the garden on the bird feeder outside my studio windows. They really enjoy the fat balls and it is essential that these tiny birds take on enough calories to get them though the cold nights. Overnight, long-tailed tits will bed down together to conserve their energy. A thick shrub such as hawthorn is favoured, and individuals will huddle into a ball with their tails sticking out.

Holly Hedge.

Hares in Conversation.

Winter Fox.

Winter Fox  
  
Winter Cottage is based on my father's house. He died in 2019 at the age of ninety-four but lived for more than forty years in the same cottage on the border of Wales to Shropshire. It was an iconic gingerbread cottage perched on the top of a crossroads that looked into Wales on one side and then out across the Shropshire plain on the other. It was the most amazing view, and according to my father, it gave him a view of more than half the width of the UK.

Winter Fields.

Winter Wood.

Nature inspires Harding's hand, but her discerning eye unravels a scene and makes it a personalised drama: the furtive animals, the distant trees, the cold, bright berries. From a hut at the bottom of a Rutland garden, scanning fields and country walks, she captures the eye-popping beauty of this singular season.  Send your senses to Mark Hearld's joyous collages, an illustrated paean to Earth's shortest day, and a January walk between memory and hope.

All of the prints featured here and more are available on Harding's wonderful site.