Join me on a quick tour of my studio in Hebden Bridge. I will tell you about my work and explain what I am currently painting and drawing.

The work presented here represents over 50 years of artistic evolution. My journey began during my time at the Camberwell School of Art, sparked by a moment on Peckham Rye; while trying to catch my own reflection in a shop window, I became captivated by the layered images within the glass. What began as a series of sketches and photographs grew into a lifelong inspiration. Decades later, I continue to explore this subject, finding it an endlessly intriguing and unresolved influence on my practice.

To help broaden my scope and move onto new subjects, I attended life drawing classes at Saint Martins College of Art, reaffirming my belief that drawing is an essential aspect of my creativity. However, the pull of the shop window proved too strong. I eventually returned to the subject, finding it to be a versatile subject matter, rich with multiple planes, surfaces, and curious distortions that continue to hold my interest. The complexity is endless: patterns and shapes shift constantly, shoppers pass by the stiff, staring mannequins, and the protective glass reflects the busy world outside, forming strange and complex visual tapestries.

Travels through India and South East Asia in 1984 sparked a new direction in my work, inspired by the region’s religions, poverty, people, and landscape. Upon returning to Britain, the social climate shifted my focus again. The miners’ strike and anti-apartheid demonstrations provided potent subjects, allowing me to document a significant historical period that had a great effect on many. I exhibited these paintings in forums such as the Lewisham Arts Festival and with a group of artists at New Moon Studios in a derelict school building in Catford. Juggling my practice with life’s demands, I also taught art, worked as a ceramics technician, and started a family.

We moved to Burnley in 1995 and I retrained as a Primary School teacher, as this had always been of interest and gave a source of income. Since this time I have made many drawings, mainly of walking experiences in Scotland and elsewhere, carefully kept in sketch books, ready maybe to be used for paintings.

In 2005 we moved to Hebden Bridge and, with the children becoming increasingly independent, I returned to my art and painting. I was lucky enough to get a small studio at Machpelah Mill in Hebden Bridge then moved on to group studio spaces at the Artsmill, Linden Mill. I next moved to Beehive Mill, and after we moved house, I now have my own studio at home in Hebden Bridge, West Yorkshire.

I was a founder member of Hebden Bridge Open Studios. Over the last 15 or so years this has grown considerably with nearly a hundred artists participating in the main event in early July and a Christmas Fair called Hebden Makes Christmas.

While my focus remains on shop window reflections, the work has evolved alongside the material world it mirrors. My exploration has expanded into new media, including woodcuts and lino prints, as I seek to build on the observations in my sketchbooks. Another interest has been my collection of seed pods that I have gathered over the years. They continue to fascinate but need much work – resolving how to present them in an interesting form. I remain deeply inspired by the unique windows of Hebden Bridge, which offer an endless, layered dialogue between the curated interior and the busy world reflected on the glass.

Here is a list of my exhibitions.

Dorothy Ann Simister – January 2026