Visiting the LAF artists: Colin Hayes – pastels

On Friday I drove up to the village of Ickleton in rural Cambridgeshire. Although it is quite near the top of the M11 it is a lovely, peaceful area, with the river Cam winding along beside the road as I drove along to the home of Colin and Rosemary Hayes. Their house is timber framed and lovely, the oldest parts dating from the 1400s. I was welcomed at the door by Colin, and Ruby, their very friendly black Labrador!

Colin Hayes in his garden studio, with one of his pastel landscapes

Colin has a large studio in the garden, which stretches down to ancient meadowlands. He will be exhibiting his pastel landscapes at Lexden Arts Festival for the first time this year.

He started working in pastels ten years before he retired from his ‘day job’, as a director of Cambridge University Press. Since then he has twice had his work accepted for exhibition by the prestigious Royal Society of British Artists. He has a love for the rural landscapes of East Anglia, those locally around his home, and further afield in the Fens, and the North Norfolk Coast.

We spent some time in the studio, going through all the work which Colin had sorted out to show in Lexden. He will also have unframed giclee prints in our print browser, and probably greetings cards of his work, too. We have never had a pastel artist exhibiting at the Festival, and I’m sure our visitors are going to enjoy Colin’s work.

Colin and his wife had very kindly invited me to stay for lunch. Rosemary is an author of around 40 books for children and teenagers – what a creative household!

To find out more about Colin and have a preview of his work go to www.colinhayes.info