The rugged landscapes of Northern England are the focal point of a new art exhibition in the latest gallery display at Low Wood Bay Resort & Spa.
The Spring 2026 ‘Art in the Atrium’ exhibition at the spa resort near Windermere is celebrating the work of two renowned artists with close connections to the Craven district of North Yorkshire.
The gallery is featuring Katharine Holmes, who currently works from her studio at the Malham cottage where her mother and grandmother lived and painted before her, and Anna Adams, whose watercolour paintings of Ribblesdale, as well as her ceramics and poetry, won widespread acclaim.
Working with Lancaster based Gavagan Art, English Lakes Hotels Resorts & Venues has developed the ‘Art in the Atrium’ gallery at Low Wood Bay into a quarterly exhibition which is introducing an array of contemporary and historic fine art to new audiences.
Katharine, who paints outside in all weathers, is best known for her paintings and drawings of her native Yorkshire landscape. One of her most prominent exhibitions was ‘A Malham Family of Painters’ in conjunction with Leeds University and her work is found in many private and corporate collections too.
The distinctive limestone environment around Malham Cove and Gordale Scar feature in many of Katharine’s paintings. Her large oil painting, ‘Limestone and Rain’ forms the centrepiece of the latest exhibition.
As part of the gallery’s ceramics showcase section, a host of ceramics, small scale paintings and a selection of Anna Adam’s poetry books will also be on display. Anna and her husband, the painter Norman Adams RA, made a farmhouse close to Pen-y-ghent in the Yorkshire Dales their main base from the mid-1950s.
Executive chairman at English Lakes Hotels Resorts & Venues Simon Berry says:
“This is already the eighth independent, free and open art exhibition that we have put on here in the atrium at Low Wood Bay in the last two years. They continue to prove highly popular with both guests and visitors."
“Just like the spectacular landscapes of the Lake District, the dales have their own distinctive limestone formations, rolling hills and valleys which have inspired and attracted artists such as Katharine and Anna for hundreds of years. It’s a pleasure to be able to put their works on display here for more people to see and to learn about the artists and their careers.”
Mary Gavagan from Gavagan Art adds:
“There is much to see and marvel at with Katharine and Anna’s work exhibited in the latest gallery at Low Wood Bay."
“It is a pleasure to present Katharine’s work to a new audience. She is fascinated by the effects of light and her paintings are as much about atmosphere as they are about the physical features of the landscape.
“She works in a range of media from ink, watercolour and gouache on paper to oil or acrylic on canvas. And alongside her Yorkshire works, the exhibition includes drawings and paintings of other locations around Britain.
“Anna’s sensitive figurative works in clay, especially her ceramic birds, are a striking example of her ability to capture the essence of the world around her. The display includes birds, animals and examples of her watercolour paintings and prints.“
Having graduated from the University of Newcastle upon Tyne, Katharine returned to live and work in the Yorkshire Dales in 1990. Beyond home and the familiar landscapes of the Yorkshire Dales, she loves to paint and portray the wilder fringes of Britain and Ireland, especially the Scottish highlands and isles and South West Cornwall.
Anna Adams (1926-2011) was educated at Harrow Art School and Hornsey College of Art. She worked as a designer, a freelance artist and an art teacher before devoting her creative energies to writing prose and verse in the 1960s.
Anna’s first poem was printed in 1969 and Peterloo Press published her first book, A Reply to Intercepted Mail, in 1979 as part of its Peterloo Poets series. Anna was poetry editor of The Green Book from 1989 to 1992, and also a member of the Poetry Society and the Piccadilly Poets Committee.
Anna published a number of books with her husband Norman, including ‘Life on Limestone: A year in the Yorkshire Dales’, featuring her writing along with his watercolours. An earlier publication was Island Chapters, documenting their visits to the island of Scarp in the Outer Hebrides.
The latest exhibition in the ‘Art in the Atrium’ gallery at Low Wood Bay runs until late May. For further information, visit here.
