Painter creating silk scarves featuring North Yorkshire's landscape

WORKING from his studio in a converted stable block in the secluded and little-known Washburn Valley, William Watson-West doesn’t have to travel far for inspiration. This quiet and secluded spot is one of North Yorkshire’s hidden gems. Just outside Harrogate, the long and winding lane which leads to his home isn’t on the road to anywhere in particular, so it’s not somewhere it’s easy to stumble across.

The largely undisturbed, lush and plentiful flora and fauna of this particular rural idyll features in most of William’s vibrant and brightly coloured semi-abstract watercolour, oil pastel and gouache paintings.

Using a family-run fabric printer in the North of England, he transfers them onto stunning luxury silk scarves and pocket squares, with names like Brimham and Swinsty reflecting the distinctive Yorkshire landscapes featured in his work. William also creates patterned designs from his observations of local nature and wildlife for his own cushions and fabric patterns, which have been used in wallpapers and ceramics.

Although he has studied in Leeds and Edinburgh, and worked for a time in London, William was always drawn back to the landscape of the Yorkshire Dales, where he grew up.

“The life of an artist can be quite solitary,” he confesses. “But there is nothing a walk in the countryside or garden and listening to the birds can’t cure. That is what makes me feel alive.”

His parents, former art lecturer turned interior designer Adrian, and former auctioneer turned teacher Sally, bought this property in 1986, a once dilapidated stone cottage which they extended and developed, and where William enjoyed an idyllic childhood. He was a talented child, drawing obsessively from the age of about three. “I was encouraged as soon as I could hold a pencil,” he recalls.

He was fascinated by nature. “My parents were always keen to teach me about wildlife and we had lots of books about birds and plants and animals. I used to be a bit obsessed with fungi hunting too. I loved going for walks and at school the subject matter of most of my art was to do with the landscape – I think I have always had quite a strong emotional attachment to it. Now, in my work, I try to translate that emotional connection onto paper.”

It was during his art foundation course at Leeds that William developed a love of textile design and went on to study printed textiles at Edinburgh College of Art. His graduate work attracted lots of interest from producers of fabrics, wallpapers and other products, which led to a move to London to concentrate on design work. In 2013, he headed back up North.

We are sitting in his studio in what used to be the hayloft of the stable building next to his parents’ home, looking out across the valley. “Although a lot of people might think it, sitting here in my studio isn’t that lonely,” says William. He is particularly inspired by the changing seasons: “That’s what is quite nice about Yorkshire and the UK – the seasons change from autumn to winter, spring and summer in a way you don’t see in a lot of countries. There’s a change in the colours, textures, smells and wildlife. I couldn’t help but be inspired by it really, it’s something I value highly.”

Two years ago, he set up his own company, developing his commercial brand, Watson West, which he now runs full-time. His design and painting work now go hand-in-hand: “The paintings and my design all come from the same initial subject matter, the observation of nature and the wildlife within it. My design work concentrates on the close-up, which helps me understand the bigger picture in terms of landscape.”

Inspired by artists like abstract painter Ivon Hitchens and English painter and printmaker John Piper, William says he experimented and messed about to find his style, which features vivid flashes of almost fluorescent colour alongside more subdued tones.

He begins in oil pastels, creating textures in a rough sketch, then layering it with watercolour and working back into the picture with oil pastel or ink, finishing off with a more opaque layer of gouache on top. “It’s a technique which has served me well,” he says. “But even with my abstract art, there has to be an interesting foundation to the subject.”

The majority of his paintings are drawn from a five-mile radius from where he lives. He paints throughout Nidderdale, and is a big fan of the small hill village of Middlesmoor. William has also done some painting at Malham in the Yorkshire Dales and a few in the Lake District, where he goes walking with friends once a year.

Constantly pushing himself to try new things, the idea for his bold, bright and contemporary silk scarves and pocket squares came about by happy accident 18 months ago. “I was playing around on the computer with images of my paintings, trying to work them into pattern repeats when I realised I didn’t need to. I could put them in a square with a border around it.”

The family-run fabric printers he already used in Macclesfield produced some digitally-printed samples in silk, and William went on to sell his products to shops in York and Harrogate, as well as from his website and at craft fairs throughout the region. They have been so successful that, as well as the scarves and cushions, he prints greetings cards and is developing further ideas in silk and with his painting-based designs, such as suit linings, shirts, mugs and upmarket packaging.

He has 100 pocket squares printed at a time, but the large scarves are more of a limited edition, with around 40 of each print produced. His customers range from young fashionistas to middle-aged art lovers, particularly from Yorkshire, but increasingly, as word spreads, from further afield.

“Silk really lends itself to the colours I use," he says. "I was thrilled at how they turned out. Painting will always be my underlying passion.”

W: watsonwest.com; T: 0798-400-5450. Silk pocket squares £40, scarves £90-115.