Woodland wonders

She talks to Women's Editor Christen Pears about her art and the landscape which inspires her.

IF you watch for long enough, you will notice the celadines moving round to track the sun like little satellite dishes. By the end of the day, you can even see how much the bluebells have grown.

Sitting in her favourite wood near her North Yorkshire home, Judith Bromley feels herself become part of the landscape. "When you sit there for a long time, all the creatures start coming out because they're used to you. You start to notice things you don't normally see and you also get a deep sense of being part of it. It's a spiritual feeling, very meditative," she says.

Judith, who works in a variety of media, including oils, pastels, gouache and watercolour, is inspired by the Dales countryside and has just completed her second book, Come Down to the Wood - a sequel to the popular Step Into the Meadow.

She has taken her inspiration from a privately-owned wood near the village of Askrigg, where she lives. Through paintings and text, she evokes the life of the wood through a complete year - Stirring, Flowering, Greening, Fruiting, Turning and Sleep - depicting the flowers, trees, insects and fungi.

Her husband Robert Nicholls - Nik - well-known for his illustrations of wildlife, has painted the animals and birds that live there.

Come Down to the Wood captures the elusive spirit of the place but it also focuses on the importance of conservation issues. British woodlands are increasingly under threat from our rapidly developing towns and cities.

The book illustrates just how important it is that places such as our natural woodland are protected - a message that the botanist and TV presenter, David Bellamy, firmly supports in his foreword.

He says: "This wonderful book tells the story of one such wildwood that still nestles in a northern dale, a story of stability through constant change, season by season, sunrise to sunset and around the clock again."

Judith has been passionate about nature from a very young age. She was born in Scarborough and grew up in Kilburn, where her father was a vicar.

"I've always been inspired by the countryside. I remember milking and turning hay with a pitchfork when I was a child so it's very much part of my life," she says.

It's an interest she is keen to convey to her art pupils.

"I've always taught drawing and painting but I realised that the meditative side was important to me. I now do workshops for people so they can gain that sense as well."

Judith, who is a Quaker, was given a grant by the Joseph Rowntree Quaker Foundation and spent a year, from 2001 to 2002, travelling across Britain in a motorhome, delivering contemplation and creation workshops in Quaker meeting houses.

The sessions included drawing, painting, working with clay, yoga and meditation.

She is still exploring the spiritual side of creativity, working with a group of local artists who run art and craft courses in a converted barn in the village.

Judith studied at Leeds art college and taught both there and in London, before moving to York with Nik. The couple then bought an old stone house in Askrigg, where they have lived for 30 years

They were instrumental in setting up the Askrigg art exhibition, which has been running every summer for the last 25 years and although they have often held joint exhibitions, Come Down to the Wood is the first time they have worked together so closely. They are already thinking about their next project, a book about the North Yorkshire moorland.

Both artists produce very detailed, delicate work, as well as more abstract, stylised paintings. They both work at home and the walls of their house are covered in paintings and drawings.

"We do work quite well together. If one of us gets stuck or needs criticism, we call the other one in. We're very keen on doing something about the moorland because it is so much part of the Yorkshire landscape."

Come Down to the Wood (Great Northern Books, £12.99).