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John Altringham @johnaltringham.bsky.social · 09/10/2026

Changing light this morning at Whitestone Cliff on the edge of the North York Moors NP. Looking west across the Vale of York to the Pennines and home.

Panoramic photo of view across a broad flat vale to distant hills. Green fields, wooded and cliff-edged escarpment, sunshine and shadow from thick cumulus clouds.

Cloud has rolled in and jackdaws play in the updraft along Whitestone Cliff.

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John Altringham @johnaltringham.bsky.social · 07/10/2026

Heavy overnight rain and the river is high, but nowhere near its highest. The Wharfe changes level rapidly where it reaches us just outside the Yorkshire Dales National Park. Much of the catchment is rapidly draining limestone, after which the water is rushed over impervious gritstone.

River flowing under sunlit stone bridge. At the left old flood level are marked in stone, several metres above current level.

Close up of flood markers. Highest: 14 Dec 1936.

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John Altringham @johnaltringham.bsky.social · 05/10/2026

Since many liked the loosely painted 'monochrome' watercolour of Ilkley Moor I posted, here's another in similar style. A snowstorm bursting over Beinn Alligin and Liathach in Torridon, NW Scotland, two of my favourite mountains. Inspired by a photograph taken by @lynnhenni.bsky.social

The main text says it already but - watercolour, monochrome, mountains, snow, snowfall, clouds, chaos.

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John Altringham @johnaltringham.bsky.social · 04/10/2026

Summer Isles, NW Scotland. On a dreich early summer day. Watercolour

Watercolour. An archipelago of small, dark islands in a silver grey sea under a brooding gunmetal blue sky.

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John Altringham @johnaltringham.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

Rubha Hunish, Skye All nine wood blocks are engraved and ready for test printing. Then a lot of faffing about to develop methods and workflows that minimise the effort and error involved in producing a run of perfect prints in perfect alignment. How hard can it be...?

A walnut ink sketch of sea cliffs running towards the horizon, left and right. Above, nine engraved and aligned woodblocks, detailing the cliffs and ready for test printing.

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John Altringham @johnaltringham.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

An ink sketch develops into a wood engraving project. Lots of variations possible, but first a lot of engraving to finish. Basalt cliffs of Rubha Hunish, Isle of Skye, Scotland. #WoodEngraving #printmaking #art #landscape #Scotland #geology

Panoramic, 75cm wide walnut ink drawing of basalt sea cliffs.

Equally spaced segments of the drawing transferred to nine lemonwood blocks, the central three being twice the size of the others. A work in progress, the blocks are only partially engraved. NB - the engravings are reversed, so that on printing the image will be the right way round.

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John Altringham @johnaltringham.bsky.social · 21/09/2026

Disturbed by K gardening - Silver Y, Autographa gamma. It had vibrated its flight muscles up to operating temperature and flown before I could catch its handsome profile.

Moth at rest showing of its intricate patterning of rich and varied browns with a striking gold y-shaped marking on each forewing

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John Altringham @johnaltringham.bsky.social · 14/09/2026

I've updated my website, adding new engravings, together with watercolours and ink sketches that span most of the 10 years I've been looking for fun and fulfilment in art. www.johnaltringham.co.uk #art #WoodEngraving #printmaking #watercolour #landscape #mountains #sketching #nature

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John Altringham @johnaltringham.bsky.social · 14/09/2026

Quinag in the far NW of Scotland, an ancient sandstone mountain on a bed of Lewisian gneiss more than half as old as the Earth. Great Close Hill near home in Yorkshire, a low, symmetrical shield of Great Scar Limestone, a hard rock that slowly dissolves in rain water into karst landscape and caves.

Watercolour and ink sketch of a lop-sided conical mountain with deep gullies on its flanks.

Watercolour sketch of a low, symmetrical, shield-shaped hill on a dark winter day, with a light dusting of snow.

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John Altringham @johnaltringham.bsky.social · 08/09/2026

The view from Sahale Mountain - Forbidden Peak centre ground, Eldorado Peak back left, emerging from the Eldorado and Inspiration Glaciers, two of many Cascade glaciers threatened by climate change. Cascades, Washington State, USA. #watercolour #art #mountains #landscape #ClimateChange

An 'alpine' landscape of rocky peaks and arêtes, small glaciers and spring snow, all under a blue sky.

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John Altringham @johnaltringham.bsky.social · 07/09/2026

Playing with some new multimedia sketchbooks - rough sketch in walnut and acrylic inks with watercolours and acrylic paint. St Kilda, after an etching by the great Norman Ackroyd.

Rocky islands in a rough sea with seabirds. Sketch on gray-blue paper, in walnut ink, acrylic ink, acrylic paint and watercolour paint.

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John Altringham @johnaltringham.bsky.social · 28/08/2026

Using masks with a single woodblock to vary ink tone is proving to be easier than expected. A useful way to increase the sense of depth in the print. Forcan Ridge, NW #Scotland. #WoodEngraving #mountains #art #landscape

Wood engraving print of a rocky, narrow mountain ridge printed in grey and black ink.

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John Altringham @johnaltringham.bsky.social · 24/08/2026

Experiments in wood engraving and printing. No, I have no idea where I am going with this.

Relief printing inks rolled out on a glass plate with streaks of more ink on top, ready to be rolled.

Wood engraving print of wave breaking along a cliff. The cliff is an irregular mix of the browns and chalky greens in the previous picture.

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John Altringham @johnaltringham.bsky.social · 22/08/2026

More watercolours of the dippers on the R Wharfe. A grey wagtail because I was bored with sketching dippers (never bored of the dippers themselves). A small, speedy kingfisher sketch because I need to clear my work table for a new project.

Watercolour sketches of birds that live along our local river. Mainly sketches of dippers with a grey wagtail and a hastily done kingfisher to finish.

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John Altringham @johnaltringham.bsky.social · 20/08/2026

Dipper on my local stretch of the River Wharfe, sketched yesterday afternoon as I listened to test match cricket online. I may do it again today.

Watercolour of a dipper on a rock. Dippers are small, dumpy birds with dark brown back and wings, chestnut abdomen and white breast and throat. They forage on aquatic invertebrates on the bottom of shallow, fast flowing, rocky streams and rivers.

Dipper foraging in shallow water, the chestnut brown of its head glowing in low sunlight.

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John Altringham @johnaltringham.bsky.social · 17/08/2026

Welcome rain, light but persistent, all day. Watching the garden drip and sketching swifts from the many mediocre photographs I took this summer. I had not really taken on board how blue/black the juveniles are until recently.

Watercolour sketches of swifts in flight, rolling, banking, stall turning, diving...

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John Altringham @johnaltringham.bsky.social · 02/08/2026

The surveyors gave precise, descriptive locations in their notes, see archive: interactivemaps.uk/os-benchmark... The majority of BMs were vertical. The horizontal slot supported a small metal 'bench' 'First order' benchmarks were vertical metal plates that served the same purpose - see photo.

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John Altringham @johnaltringham.bsky.social · 01/08/2026

On #YorkshireDay - Scar Close and Ingleborough, Whitestone Cliff and Goremire Lake, Kettlewell in Wharfedale, the view north from Ilkley Moor.

Limestone pavement with a rich community of flowers and trees growing in the deep grikes between the pale grey, water-smoothed clints of Carboniferous limestone. In the distance, Ingleborough, a layer cake of limestones, sandstones and shales.

A view from the top of a pale limestone cliff into the low evening sun. Below the cliff a lake is surrounded by sunlit trees. Green fields and hedges recede into the distance.

A sunlit post-glacial, u-shaped valley with small fields in a network of drystone walls. Above the fields on the steeper slopes there is woodland. In the foreground a stone-built village.

Winter panorama of gentle snow-covered hills across a green, wooded valley.

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John Altringham @johnaltringham.bsky.social · 09/07/2026

I ought to look more closely at them. The River Wharfe runs for most of its length through Carboniferous limestone before it reaches the gritstone just upstream of us. Both rocks must be more varied than I think. Next walk...

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John Altringham @johnaltringham.bsky.social · 09/07/2026

Down by the river - grey wagtails busy foraging to feed their young.

Three photos of grey wagtails collecting insects among water-smoothed pebbles and cobbles on the river's edge. Slender birds with long, wagging tails, grey backs, dark wings, yellow rumps.

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John Altringham @johnaltringham.bsky.social · 03/07/2026

Afternoon walk along the riverbank. Plenty of butterflies, including this small skipper, and a few garden 'escapees' among the wild flowers.

$A path lined with wild and not-so-wild flowers passes through a large, fractured and collapsed, but still growing, willow.$ A big patch of meadow cranesbill among long grasses.

A big patch of meadow cranesbill among long grasses.

A small skipper butterfly on a grass stem.

Another bold display of wild and not-so-wild flowers on a riverbank.

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John Altringham @johnaltringham.bsky.social · 24/06/2026

The local swifts chasing and screaming. Sunset yesterday from our bedroom window. #swifts #sunset

A small group of swifts in an orange sunset, seen from a distance.

A group of swifts, sharp black silhouettes against an orange sunset.

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John Altringham @johnaltringham.bsky.social · 18/06/2026

Wednesday evening walk along the River Wharfe. Goosander, oystercatcher and common sandpiper with young, sand martins in and out of their nests in the bank, curlews calling in the adjacent fields, blackbird, song thrush and mistle thrush competing from the trees, the flash of a kingfisher to end.

A river, crossed by an old stone bridge, seen through a gap in dense vegetation.

A narrow riverside path through bankside willows and other greenery.

An ancient willow that has split and collapsed many times but remains vigorous. One collapsed branch lies across the path.

Field of long grasses and wildflowers with the trees of the riverbank beyond. The sun is just going down.

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John Altringham @johnaltringham.bsky.social · 16/06/2026

Watercolour sketches started yesterday and finished this morning. Changing light over the Sound of Sleat from Isleornsay, Skye. #watercolour #landscape #mountains #Scotland #art

Watercolour in blues. Early mist and cloud are clearing from mountains seen across a sea passage. The sea is deep blue under a band of heavy cloud but for a bright, sunlit patch in the centre.

Watercolour in blues. Low mist obscures the meeting of mountains and sea across the centre of the picture. The sea is almost calm and reflects the mountains and sky.

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John Altringham @johnaltringham.bsky.social · 10/06/2026

For those who need a little light relief today - the garden in June. A young robin, azure damselfly, wood mouse, zebra jumping spider. Best not to think about their feeding habits.

Young robin sat on a fence in the sun, head tilted to one side

Tiny jumping spider on a leaf, looking directly at the camera.

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John Altringham @johnaltringham.bsky.social · 08/06/2026

Wood engraving, Cir Mhòr, Arran. Printed in three graded ink layers to enhance the aerial perspective I failed to capture in the engraving! Time-consuming but I learned a few things. 150x100 mm. #art #prints #printmaking #mountains #Scotland #landscape

Print in grey and black inks of a wood engraving. A view across a vertical rock buttress to rocky mountains and ridges, with lowlands and sea beyond.

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John Altringham @johnaltringham.bsky.social · 02/06/2026

The geologist James Hutton was born in Edinburgh 300 years ago tomorrow. Two slices of Scottish geology I (an ecologist) have enjoyed studying. The Moine Thrust Mylonites at Faraid Head, Balnekeil Bay and lichens on a basalt dyke in Lewisian gneiss, Raasay. #geology #JamesHutton #DeepTime #Scotland

watercolour of dipping rock planes on a beach with numerous bedding planes and faults at right angles to each other. And a distinctive horizontal tide mark of barnacles and other lifeforms.

watercolour - a basalt dyke, richly coated in colourful lichens cuts through grey Lewisian gneiss with its own grey, lichen community.

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John Altringham @johnaltringham.bsky.social · 31/05/2026

In case you missed it: interactivemaps.uk/os-benchmark... The OS Benchmark Archive - memorials to how survey/mapping used to be done. If you have access they are on OS Maps Desktop too. There is a benchmark on the wall at the bottom of our garden. #maps #mapping #OrdnanceSurvey

Old sandstone wall with a survey benchmark at its base.

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John Altringham @johnaltringham.bsky.social · 24/05/2026

Swifts over the moon, part 2. Another attempt. Conclusion: I cannot get an in focus moon AND swift in one shot. I thought perhaps stopping down might just do it... no. Here's a fuzzy swift flying between me and the moon.

Out of focus swift flies across the face of the early evening moon.

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John Altringham @johnaltringham.bsky.social · 23/05/2026

Just spent a happy 40 min trying to photograph swifts crossing the moon. Futile. Here's the moon. They are still out there, crossing it.

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John Altringham @johnaltringham.bsky.social · 23/05/2026

House martins have investigated the gable of the house opposite for several years but this is the first time they have done so early enough to build nests there. A couple of fuzzy photos taken today, better ones to come I hope. #birds #nesting #nature

House martins investigate the gable of a stone-built house as a possible nesting site. One is almost hidden, clinging to the wall behind the barge-board. Another is clinging on to the wall below it and a third flies by.

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John Altringham @johnaltringham.bsky.social · 22/05/2026

Symmetry and order - fern fronds (soft shield fern?) in a shady corner of the garden.

Fresh green symmetry and order in fern frond pinnules shaped like parsley leaves.

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John Altringham @johnaltringham.bsky.social · 19/05/2026

Five years ago to the hour. For the first time in years we will miss the May light in the NW of Scotland.

Beinn Sgritheall across the Sound of Sleat, Skye. Sunset turns the mountain a pale apricot colour and clouds scatter shadows, helping to reveal the mountain relief.

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John Altringham @johnaltringham.bsky.social · 17/05/2026

A day to go down to the river and watch the dippers.

A dipper, a round, chestnut brown bird with a white bib standing in a shallow, fast flowing river, lit by a low sun.

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John Altringham @johnaltringham.bsky.social · 15/05/2026

First attempt at printing a wood engraving with two colours grading into each other on the block, using two rollers, wet on wet. Far from perfect execution, but effective nevertheless. Dunstanburgh Castle, 100x100mm.

Wood engraving print of a ruined castle on a headland under a stormy sky. Waves roll and break on a beach in the foreground, the wind rips spray backwards off the wave tops. Printed with a colour gradient from blue-black sky and headband to a mid-blue with a hint of green sea.

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John Altringham @johnaltringham.bsky.social · 13/05/2026

Another watercolour island from the 'air', sketched from a LiDAR reconstruction: Hirta and Soay, St Kilda.

Monochrome watercolour of rugged, 3D islands on a 'paper' sea, seen from the air.

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John Altringham @johnaltringham.bsky.social · 09/05/2026

Just replaced my rusty old website with a shiny new one. Not a task I relished but a welcome distraction from the state of things. www.johnaltringham.co.uk #art #WoodEngraving #prints #mountains #landscape #nature #Scotland #Yorkshire #Northumberland

Print of a wood engraving in black ink of a woodland path with tree-root ‘steps’ leading to a stile out of the wood.

Print of wood engraving in dark blue ink of a gnarly old Scots pine tree on a mountain slope under a starry sky.

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John Altringham @johnaltringham.bsky.social · 22/04/2026

An afternoon walk in the woods on #EarthDay, bluebells and greater stitchwort at their best, a tawny owl hooting.

Dense patch of bluebells and greater stitchwort in dappled sunlight on a woodland floor.

Bluebells carpet a woodland floor in dappled sunshine. Trees are coming into fresh green leaf.

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John Altringham @johnaltringham.bsky.social · 21/04/2026

#WorldCurlewDay, a day when the curlew stands for all species caught in the climate and biodiversity crisis. I will take a walk on the moor after lunch and be grateful for their presence.

Curlew sitting on drystone wall, above, another curlew in flight, wings and primaries spread.

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John Altringham @johnaltringham.bsky.social · 04/04/2026

Rievaulx Abbey, N. Yorkshire, England. A print from a 10x10 cm engraving on lemonwood. #WoodEngraving #art #printmaking #history #architecture

Print in black ink from a 10x10 cm wood engraving. The partially ruined wall of a mediaeval abbey. Above a doorway flanked by blind arcades three tall windows with pointed arches are lit by the sun from the right. Grass grows on the broken top of the wall and through the windows you can see a wooded valley side.

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John Altringham @johnaltringham.bsky.social · 19/03/2026

Glorious morning on Ilkley Moor. Highlight of walk was a flock of at least 734 wheeling and piping Golden Plovers. The first wheatears of the year have arrived, stonechats are busy and the skylarks are singing. The photo of the plover flock was taken this morning, other photos are from other walks.

Golden Plover, a medium-sized wader, with a short bill. Black face and breast, the back is bright spotted white, black/brown and gold (dominant) from the top of the head to the tip of the tail and part of the wing.

A flock of 734 golden plovers in a blue sky with a little wispy cloud

Wheatear, a small passerine. Blue/grey back, black wings, white front with peachy throat and bib. Black eye stripe. Distinctive inverted black T ends the tail.

Stonechat, male, rich chestnut breast, brown back/wings, black head, white partial collar.

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John Altringham @johnaltringham.bsky.social · 01/03/2026

Warm light in a cold, winter sunset at Byland Abbey in N Yorkshire, England, January 2025. One of several mediaeval monastic ruins in the area built in the beautiful local sandstone/limestone. A year later, a wood engraving in progress, the first test print made this morning.

Doorway of ruined mediaeval monastery photographed in 'warm' winter sunset light.

Wood engraving print, 100x65mm, in black ink, with pencil and engraving tool for scale. An ornate stone arch in a ruined, mediaeval monastery framing a distant arched window. First test print, work in progress.

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John Altringham @johnaltringham.bsky.social · 12/02/2026

Share a photograph of mountains that you've taken

Rugged mountain under deep snow and a blue sky

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John Altringham @johnaltringham.bsky.social · 03/02/2026

A rapid sketch in walnut ink of what the moor might have looked like the last time I was up there if it hadn't been enveloped in rain and cloud.

Rough sketch in walnut (brown) ink of a wet and misty moorland edge.

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John Altringham @johnaltringham.bsky.social · 15/01/2026

First proof print from the finished block. The columnar basalt cliffs of Rubha Hunish on the northern tip of Skye. 75x75mm wood engraving. To the right, the engraving in a lemonwood block, after printing.

Wood engraving print in black ink of columnar basalt cliffs of Rubha Hunish on the northern tip of Skye. A steep rocky path descends from a break between the two buttresses and two tiny figures give the scene scale. Two engraving tools lie alongside.

The engraving in a lemonwood block after printing. In cleaning the block after printing a little thinned ink may be wiped into the cuts obscuring some detail. This does not affect the quality of subsequent prints once the block has dried.

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John Altringham @johnaltringham.bsky.social · 13/01/2026

About to start on the final edits to the Rubha Hunish wood engraving, aiming for a proof print before day's end. In the meantime, to take your mind off the madness of the human world, here's Sgùrr nan Gillean in the Cuillin of Skye, in a winter snowstorm. In watercolour and wood engraving.

Watercolour. An ascending mountain ridge of three rocky pinnacles in a winter snowstorm.

A print in black ink of a wood engraving of the same mountain in a snowstorm.

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John Altringham @johnaltringham.bsky.social · 05/01/2026

Ben Alder, central highlands, Scotland. Sketch in walnut ink and a wood engraving print based on the sketch. Working on these engravings of Scotland's mountains is a constant reminder of how many I will never see again... and that in many cases that's just fine! Give me my gnarly old favourites.

Sketch in dark brown walnut ink of a mountain showing several ridges and corries leading up to a broad, complex plateau/summit. Done in a relatively sparse, graphic style with an empty sky.

A print in black ink from a wood engraving based on the ink sketch.

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