Harrogate and Nidderdale Art Club, Spring Exhibition. 2-4 May 2026.
The club exhibition has now returned to Ripley Town Hall, in Ripley North Yorkshire. After the decision by the Ingleby family to sell the Ripley Castle and the estate, the club had to switch the November 2025 exhibition to a venue in Harrogate. The Town Hall is now community owned after a successful £400,000 public campaign to buy it. We are delighted to be back.
My pictures will include a triptych of Murphy, a PomChi (pomeranian chihuahua) small dog.
Murphy, a PomChi – pomeranian chihuahua. Continuous line drawing by Mick Burton.
Murphy, PomChi – pomeranian chihuahua. Alternate shading continuous line by Mick Burton.
Murphy Shines. PomChi – pomeranian chihuahua. Continuous line drawing in grey and gold. Mick Burton, Yorkshire Artist.
I had some Gold paint left over after completing a Red Squirrel. I wanted to produce a shining effect in the face which you can see in the photo below.
Murphy was with Sue and Stuart, Joan’s brother, from 2014 to when he died in 2025. He had a happy life with regular walks on the beaches near Hornsea, but was going blind from the age of 8. This is the photo that I based the continuous line drawings on, taken at the River Skell in Ripon in August 2024.
Murphy, a PomChi – pomeranian chihuahua. By the River in Ripon, August 2024. Photo Stuart Firth.
Here are pictures from early October 2016 in Northumberland when we met up with Sue and Stuart and the dogs.
Joan with Murphy and Stuart with Dottie, in Craster, Northumberland. October 2016. Photo Mick Burton, Yorkshire artist.
After I first met Murphy at Sue and Stuart’s, I was sitting in an armchair and he was looking to jump onto my lap. My body seemed to tense as if it was Dottie, but this “feather” arrived.
The description of “handbag dog” applied when they visited some of their family who were at a holiday site in the Isle of Wight’ where there was a “No Dogs Allowed” sign. Sue could smuggle Murphy in and out without any problem.
After Craster we visited Lindisfarne Castle on Holy Island, where it became so windy you could hardly stand up. Dogs don’t seem it mind, just like when they used to stick their heads out of car windows.
Murphy being blown by a fierce wind whilst on the Castle on Holy Island, Northumberland. Photo Mick Burton, Yorkshire artist.
Here is Dottie greeting Blind Jack of Knaresborough on another trip out.
Dottie greeting Blind Jack of Knaresborough. Photo Mick Burton, Yorkshire artist.
You may remember Dottie from an earlier post in December 2018 when I featured a Continuous Line Portrait of her in a demonstration at Harrogate and Nidderdale Art Club. Here she is checking out her portrait at home.
This is Dottie checking out her portrait, done in Single Continuous Line with alternate shading by Mick Burton. Photo by Stuart Firth.
Coco, a Chihuahua, joined Dottie and Murphy. Then, after Dottie died, they got a new companion, Lady, a rescue Lurcher.
Coco, a chihuahua, and Lady, a rescue Lurcher. Photo, Mick Burton, Yorkshire Artist.
Mick Burton 