A DALE artist, who has drawn inspiration from Swaledale tup shows, will be putting her work on view during Middleton-in-Teesdale’s annual Christmas fair.
Sarah Nelson, who operates out of a studio at the village’s auction mart, spent the summer visiting tup sales at Middleton, Kirby Stephen and Hawes where she practised “live mark making” .
The artform consists of making rapid marks on paper using charcoal, a useful medium for sketching the black and white sheep breed. The rapid style also captures the action and atmosphere of the event.
Ms Nelson also happened to be at the sale in Kirby Stephen to witness one of the two tups that sold for a record breaking £105,000.
She said: “It is very exciting being in the auction when it is going on. It starts going up in small increments and then it is in thousands of pounds. There was a huge applause at the end.
“I find Swaledale sheep fascinating – they are very beautiful sheep. The tups particularly are very impressive. What makes one worth £105,000 and another less than £100?”
She has also been using paint to capture the essence of the auction, and two of her paintings are currently on display at Hasting Arts Forum’s exhibition at St Leonard’s on Sea.
Ms Nelson said: “They have come from Hawes auction ring. It is very small and there is no elbow room to draw – that’s when I saw this monitoring point behind the auctioneer.
“From there it is a very abstract and distorted view, and I found it very inspiring.”
However, sheep are not the only reason the artist is drawn to the subject of auctions – it is also the people.
She said: “There is this sense of community, especially at Kirby Stephen. There are retired farmers who come to watch and they are joined by their grandchildren after school.
“It is such a great thing and I feel very privileged to be there.”
Ms Nelson will be holding a stall at Middleton-in-Teesdale Christmas Fair at the auction mart on Saturday, November 25, from 11am to 3pm.
![A COUNTY councillor is backing a campaign to get a pedestrian crossing in Staindrop. Frustrated parish councillors in the village summoned their county council representative Cllr George Richardson to their latest meeting to discuss several issues, including the call for a safe way to cross the A688. Earlier this year their request for a crossing was turned down by the county council’s highways officers. Parish council chairman Jonothan Raper described the reasons for the refusal as “spurious” and called on Cllr Richardson to support their campaign. He added: “One of the arguments they made was there is no clear line of desire when they studied the village – well this isn’t a clear line of desire because there isn’t a crossing, people cross whenever they can. “When the lollipop person was there, one of the things I noticed was people would walk all the way down to the lollipop person to cross the road to go to the shop or to go to the school.” He added a problem of parking at the primary school is exacerbated because people are too afraid to walk their children across the road. Cllr Richardson said he had supported previous attempts for a crossing point with the first being made about 15 years ago. He added: “We went fairly well down the road with that and they looked into it. The only recommended place was where the bus stop is and to get the visibility splays, people on the other side of the road would lose their parking. “That didn’t go down well so it just died a death.” Cllr Raper said he suspected the real reason for the officers’ refusal was the cost of installing a crossing. He added that much of the cost could be recovered from savings made on not having to employ a lollipop patrol. Cllr Raper said: “A lollipop person only provides a benefit of crossing for three hours of the day. You are getting 21 extra hours of crossing time [with a pedestrian crossing].” Cllr Richardson said he would raise the issue with the county council’s cabinet member for highways, Cllr John Shuttleworth.](https://teesdalemercury.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/georgeR-120x86.jpg)
