"Langdale Glist" - Pip Seymour and Rebecca Wallace painting at the Heaton Cooper Gallery, Grasmere - 18 May 2025

Today I made a trip to Grasmere in the Lake District to meet up with my old friend Pip Seymour at the Heaton Cooper Gallery, where he’s exhibiting paintings alongside Rebecca Wallace in a show titled Langdale Glist.

Pip described how they worked outdoors in all weathers, using the paints and drawing materials they’ve developed themselves. His brushwork reflects the sweeping contours of the hills, with richly textured surfaces and deliberate, rhythmic strokes. The interplay of luminous and gritty earth pigments roots the viewer in the landscape.

I worked with Pip in the 1990s, selling art materials to professional artists at AP Fitzpatrick’s, but we hadn’t seen each other in many years. It was wonderful to reconnect—it felt like no time had passed. Pip was a font of knowledge back then, as he still is today. He wrote his first book, A Short Book about Oil Painting, in 1995. I helped proofread the manuscript and went on to use it in my teaching for over 20 years.

In 2010, Pip and Rebecca founded their own company, Wallace Seymour Fine Art Products, to encourage contemporary artists to use high-quality materials. Based in the north of England, they run a small factory where they produce watercolour, acrylic, and oil paints, and research pigments—ranging from precious plant colours to innovative synthetics—as well as mediums, binders, and varnishes.

Their combined knowledge and experience as painters clearly informs their production of art materials, and this comes through in the exhibition. The Heaton Cooper Studio is a fitting venue, with its deep roots in landscape painting. The exhibition was curated by Julian Cooper, grandson of the renowned artist Alfred Heaton Cooper, who established the studio in 1905.

I hope to see Pip again soon—there’s always more to learn from him, and I enjoy his company. It was thoughtful of him to bring me a copy of The Artist’s Handbook, which he first published in 2007. I’d love to find a way to return the gesture.

You can read about Wallace Seymour here: https://www.wallaceseymour.co.uk/