A baby hedgehog needing milk or a chick missing its mother are not unusual visitors to artist Penny Hunt’s studio.
When she’s not out collecting stones to grind into pigments or painting landscapes, she is busy looking after creatures who have become injured or deserted in the countryside around her home in Horton in Ribblesdale.
Last year she and other volunteers at Yorkshire Dales Wildlife Rescue cared for around 1,000 animals and birds in the dilapidated former school that is their headquarters. Penny co-founded the organisation, which was formerly known as Craven Wildlife Rescue.
And when they need round-the-clock feeding, she often takes them back to her studio so she can get on with creating work for exhibitions including the current North Yorkshire Open Studios’ Spring Showcase at Inspired By… gallery in Danby.
It all started when Penny began finding creatures in need during long walks that form the inspiration for her art.
Penny, 59, who will also be opening her studio to visitors as part of North Yorkshire Open Studios in June, said: “The first animal I found was a hedgehog, and it was running across the road in daylight. I didn’t know anything about them, but I knew they weren’t supposed to be out in daylight. The nearest place I could find at that point to take a hedgehog was Manchester, later I found a rescue centre in Bingley.”
Eventually she joined forces with Jane Carpenter, who was also rescuing animals and driving miles to find them help.
Penny said: “I had hedgehogs in the conservatory and in the shed. Jane had them in her spare bedroom, and she had cormorants in her bath tub. Then we got more people involved and we became a registered charity in 2024.
“We’ve got all sorts. There’s a red kite being released today. We have buzzards. We’ve always got lots of owls in, always lots of hedgehogs.”
The nature all around her also inspires Penny’s landscapes, which she creates using materials she has collected on her walks.
Sometimes she draws with stones and clays that make marks on paper. She burns twigs to make her own charcoal, and grinds stones into powder that she makes into paint.
Instead of brushes, she might use a bundle of reeds or a bamboo stick dipped in handmade ink.
Penny says: “I take sketchbooks out with me, and I hunker down behind a wall and do quick sketches using a stone. Then I bring those back into the studio, and then work roughly from there. It’s about capturing a feeling of place rather than an exact place.”
Penny’s work can currently be seen on display at NYOS’ Spring Showcase at Inspired By… gallery, inside Danby Lodge National Park Centre, until 10 May. She will also be taking part in NYOS’ upcoming Summer Open Studios (weekends of 6-7 and 13-14 June), when more than 200 artists across 3,000 sq miles will welcome the public into their creative spaces.
