Fountains Abbey and Studley Royal: New exhibition explores splendour and beauty of nature in Yorkshire

He is an artist synonymous with Fountains Abbey after spending a year’s residency in the North Yorkshire beauty spot, and now Peter M Hicks’s work is the subject of a new exhibition there.

‘Fountains Abbey & Studley Royal - A Landscape Painters Perspective’ celebrates the work of the northern landscape artist during his residency in 2023.

Commissioned by the National Trust, Mr Hicks created a collection of works in response to the designed landscapes of Fountains Abbey and Studley Royal Water Garden, with the resulting paintings, studies and sketchbooks being displayed in Fountains Mill.

Mr Hicks, who is now in his 80s, has lived and worked for most of his life on the North York Moors close to the Yorkshire coast.

Inspired by the drama and immensity of the British landscape, he has developed into one of northern England's leading landscape artists.

“The chance to work at Fountains Abbey and Studley Royal late in life surprised me,” he said. “Then it became a chance to explore a vision of my own in a place rich with promise to a painter crossing from the 20th to the 21st century, heavy with freedoms and procedures and the practical choices newly open to me.

“Fountains Abbey and Studley Royal may not have needed me to speak about its rich heritage and landscape vistas, but I have come to see that it has given me a chance to explore landscape and waterways in my own choice of texture, colour, and use of material and pictorial language.

“This is all at a time when I might be expected to be slowing down concerning my painter’s practice. It has been said of me however, that in fact this opportunity has come when I am at the height of my ongoing fulfilment. What a wonderful hope and promise.”

The exhibition features selected studio objects such as paint pots and brushes, testimonials from Mr Hicks about his process, and his own workbench.

The artist works in abstract landscapes with acrylic washes on canvas and board - he makes his own benches, brush handles, and uses humble and accessible materials, such as old margarine pots for mixing his paints. He also upcycles old jewellery boxes into paint boxes.

Justin Scully, general manager at National Trust Fountains Abbey and Studley Royal said: “I first met Peter in July 2022, when he had been invited to Fountains by renowned landscape photographer Joe Cornish.

" Peter was reminiscing that he had sketched here many years ago and I politely said that it was time for him to visit us again, from such a brief conversation came great things.

“As it has always done, this special place captures an artist’s imagination. The commission has created much more work than we ever intended but it has also to my mind captured Peter’s personality itself and his very particular aesthetic.

"Peter’s studio in the North York Moors is inspirational, it embodies his way of working, his approach to his art and we have tried to give some hint of this in the exhibition.

"Peter has completely understood and captured our spirit of place as both a garden and a romantic ruin, but also the way the iconic image of the abbey itself is part of our Yorkshire identity.”

The exhibition runs until Sunday August 11 in Fountains Mill. There will also be artwork on display in the Tabernacle at Studley Lake in the water garden.