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Now, Lucia is using her art to give back to the region. Her work will be auctioned at the Yorkshire Cancer Research ‘A Night Like No Other’ Gala Dinner at Castle Howard this autumn, helping to fund life-saving cancer research in Yorkshire.
Lucia’s deep-rooted connection to Yorkshire began as a child, when her father would retreat to Ilkley Moor to unwind from his academic work. She inherited his love of big open spaces and their power in sparking creativity.
After he passed away nine years ago, she set out on a quest to paint all the named Dales in the National Park: one final project before putting down her soft pastels and beginning retirement.
Lucia said: “I set out to visit and explore every named Dale in our beautiful National Park, soaking in the unique character of each one to capture in a painting. My art serves as a reminder that welcoming, uplifting spaces exist, and many people have the Yorkshire Dales right on their doorstep.”
She continued: “I use the gorgeous medium of soft pastels which help to show the wind is blowing and the clouds are moving. The Yorkshire Dales offers a place to be soothed and inspired, and I hope owners of my work can experience those feelings too.”
Since beginning the project in 2016, Lucia has created 52 paintings, all depicting different areas of beauty from the Dales, from stone walls, pools of water or wide-open moorlands. Her final series, titled ‘A Class Act’, depicts the picturesque landscapes of Wensleydale.
Lucia said: “I slowly worked my way through the Dales, but I kept putting off Wensleydale. It’s so big and majestic, with so much personality that I didn’t know how to distil it all into one painting. In the end, I decided I would need to create four paintings to illustrate the whole of its character.”
Lucia has donated one of these paintings – A CLASS ACT III -, which depicts Wether Fell in Wensleydale – to the Yorkshire Cancer Research Dinner. Having recently lost two close friends to cancer, she hopes her work will raise funds to go towards pioneering cancer research in Yorkshire, so more treatments can be discovered, and more people who are diagnosed with cancer survive.
She said: “There’s no one who hasn’t been affected by cancer, and two of my very close friends sadly passed away from this horrible disease. I chose to support Yorkshire Cancer Research after hearing about its impactful work from my close friend Katy, who has been part of the Ilkley Local Volunteer Group for decades. I hope the money raised from my painting can help the charity discover more treatments, so more people who are diagnosed with cancer survive.”
This is not the first time Lucia’s art will be helping to make a difference to people with cancer. Six years ago, she was commissioned by someone in her local community to create a very special set of paintings in memory of his wife, Revd Dr Liz Smith, who died of cancer. Working with the design team of the Bexley Wing at St James’s University Hospital, Lucia created paintings to enhance specific spaces within the new Clinical Research Facility, helping support the wellbeing of people with cancer and the staff supporting them.
She said: “I’m a big believer that art can help reduce stress and promote healing, so I was very honoured to be given this opportunity to make a small change to people’s experiences in the hospital. I chose to do four pieces of the Moors near Ilkley, with big Yorkshire skies. I wanted to depict these places as uplifting and soothing – and a chance for those facing the challenges of cancer to feel transported, even briefly, away from it all.”
The paintings are exhibited in the waiting room and corridors of the National Institute for Health and Care Research Leeds Clinical Research Facility, where world-leading clinical trials take place. Such trials include FOxTROT 2 and FOxTROT 3, two pioneering clinical trials funded by Yorkshire Cancer Research, which aim to improve outcomes for people with bowel cancer.
Lucia concluded: “I feel so connected to Yorkshire Cancer Research knowing my art sits in the very rooms where its vital work takes place. I’m so pleased to be donating one of my pieces to the Yorkshire Cancer Research Gala Dinner, so the charity can continue to fund more innovative clinical cancer trials – like the ones in the Bexley Wing – that are changing lives.”
Yorkshire Cancer Research funds £64m of cancer research and services, including 25 clinical trials. The work funded by the charity provides 175,000 people the opportunity to take part in pioneering cancer research and services, so more people survive cancer and can enjoy more moments with the people they love.
To find out more about the Yorkshire Cancer Research ‘A Night Like No Other’ Gala Dinner visit: www.yorkshirecancerresearch.org.uk/events-fundraising/a-night-like-no-other
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