Ian Brooks
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ianmbrooks.bsky.social
Ian Brooks
@ianmbrooks.bsky.social
370 followers 370 following 200 posts
Scientist (polar climate processes, ocean-atmosphere interactions), academic (grumpy), artist/printmaker (landscape etchings...mostly), tired.
inkwyrm.com | https://environment.leeds.ac.uk/see/staff/1178/professor-ian-brooks
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ianmbrooks.bsky.social
This one's off to the Yorkshire Artist's Winter Show at the Saltaire Gallery, Nov 20 - Feb 22.
Mount MacArthur, aquatint etching, 30.5x28.5 cm, edition of 15.
Named for British yachtswoman Ellen MacArthur, the peak lies at the head of the Heaney Glacier on the island of South Georgia.
Monochrome etching of a snow covered mountain seen across a glacier.
November 16, 2025 at 11:33 AM
ianmbrooks.bsky.social
New etching - "Looking Back To Stanbury" - 13x14 cm, edition of 15. Haworth moor covered in snow. No 1/15 is framed up and heading to the Zillah Bell Gallery for their winter exhibition.
Soft, sepia toned etching of a snow covered moor. The image is split into two by the curve of a hillside, below is almost all bare snow, with a few shadows of broken stone walls. The upper half is trees and drystone walls, fading into the distance below a featureless grey sky. The etching from the first image, framed with a wide white mount and black wooden frame. It sits on a pine shelf, various small skulls sit around it, and along with a glass jar of feathers.
November 1, 2025 at 4:13 PM
ianmbrooks.bsky.social
Exhibition news (3) : 'Twilight in Isfjorden' and 'Macleod's Table North from Ceann Liam' will both be at the Woolwich Contemporary Print Fair at the Royal Arsenal in Woolwich, London, Nov 13-16. woolwichprintfair.com
I have free tickets available - DM me if you'd like one.
A sepia toned etching of a snow covered mountain, seen across an expanse of still, dark water. Part of the mountain side disappears in cloud. A sepia toned etching of a hillside, seen across water with foreground rocks.
October 28, 2025 at 8:12 AM
ianmbrooks.bsky.social
inkwyrm.com - thankfully AI can't (yet) make etchings.
sepia toned print of a snow covered mountain, partly shrouded by cloud - an aquatint etching sepia toned print (aquatint etching) of a snow covered mountain seen across a dark sea. Ribbons of cloud or rain fall from a dark sky.
October 26, 2025 at 5:17 PM
ianmbrooks.bsky.social
Great excitement yesterday, discovering that in addition to the big fella, we have a wee hedgehoglet in the garden too!
July 27, 2025 at 2:15 PM
ianmbrooks.bsky.social
Found a friend... unusual to see out and about in middle of the day.
Photo of a hedgehog at the edge of a gravelled drive.
July 23, 2025 at 10:08 AM
ianmbrooks.bsky.social
Exhibition news.
2) This etching of Port Lockroy, Antarctica, is part of the New Light Art Summer Exhibition at Sunny Bank Mills, Farsley, Leeds, on until August 10. newlight-art.org.uk/the-new-ligh...

I'm honoured to have been awarded a New Light bursary prize for this, selected by Anne Desmet RA.
monochrome tonal etching of Port Lockroy, Antarctica. A snow covered landscape with mountain pushing through the ice. In the foreground a small cluster of huts and radio masts sit on rocky islands, seen across a partially ice-covered bay.
July 13, 2025 at 9:58 AM
ianmbrooks.bsky.social
Exhibition news.
1) I have a number of etchings on show at the Zillah Bell Gallery in Thirsk, North Yorkshire as part of their Summer Exhibition, running until August 2.
www.zillahbellgallery.co.uk/collections/...
Monochrome tonal etching of a rocky island and snow-covered cliff face seen across water. The upper part of the cliff is shrouded in cloud.
July 13, 2025 at 9:51 AM
ianmbrooks.bsky.social
Feeding time for a fledgling blackbird that settled outside the studio window the other evening.
June 28, 2025 at 2:50 PM
ianmbrooks.bsky.social
Only half way through this, but trust me, you want it. Wonderfully evocative writing of making a life in Shetland.
Photo of a copy of Storm Pegs by Jen Hadfield
June 6, 2025 at 8:09 PM
ianmbrooks.bsky.social
New etching - Dale Fort - 18x15cm - edition of 20.
Second image shows the ink wash sketch made from the beach at Dale on the Pembrokeshire coast during an afternoon off from teaching at Dale Fort field centre. The smaller sketch is a studio study figuring out sky and sea for the etching.
black and white aquatint etching of a view of a coastal headland, and distant land. The sky and lower half of the image shade into black photo of two sketchbooks, both show ink wash sketches of the same headland.
June 1, 2025 at 10:12 AM
ianmbrooks.bsky.social
Saturday night's all gone a bit...
Photo of a ginger cat lying on its back, legs in the air, fast asleep.
May 17, 2025 at 7:06 PM
ianmbrooks.bsky.social
Don't think I ever expected to have to remove this bookcase, so I'm mildly impressed and not a little surprised that past-me built & installed it so it could be removed as one. And after a morning spent reshaping of the backs of side panels to fit new window...ready to load up again.
photo of a wooden bookcase waiting to be reinstalled in a recess photo of wooden bookcase installed in the recess between two windows
May 17, 2025 at 1:35 PM
ianmbrooks.bsky.social
Some photos from the opening of my exhibition at the Artizan Gallery in Torquay - it's a lovely gallery, beautifully presented. Alongside my etchings there is a parallel show of sculpture and ceramics with some really beautiful pieces.

www.art-hub.co.uk/ex/apr25
photo of people chatting in a small art gallery photo of a group of black and white landscape etchings hung on a gallery wall photo of a group of balck and white landscape etchings on a gallery wall. Below the etchings a group of dark coloured ceramics sit on white pedestals. a group of people in a small art gallery
April 22, 2025 at 4:23 PM
ianmbrooks.bsky.social
In Stockholm for a science meeting, and managed a quick pre-meeting raid on the bookstore at Nobel Prize Museum to pick up this gorgeous book of photographs of bleak, minimalist Swedish landscape photographs by my good friend Karin Alfredsson.

www.karinalfredsson.com/boken
photo of the cover of a book of photographs - Snow and Rain Shall Pass by Karin Alfredsson - the cover shows an almost abstract image of a forested hillside in snow. photo of a double page spread of a photograph of trees in snow.
April 22, 2025 at 3:57 PM
ianmbrooks.bsky.social
My exhibition at the Artizan Gallery, Torquay, opens a week today. Preview event Friday April 18, 6-8pm. Exhibition runs until May 31.

www.artizangallery.co.uk
Black and white aquatint etching of a snow covered mountain seen across still water. More distant mountains are obscured by clouds; the upper half of the image is all cloud.
April 11, 2025 at 11:03 AM
ianmbrooks.bsky.social
Saturday evening sleepy cat...
Photo of a sleepy ginger cat.
April 5, 2025 at 5:30 PM
ianmbrooks.bsky.social
Printing the edition of this etching of Macleod's Table South (isle of Skye) today. The repetition of inking, wiping, printing is vaguely soothing. I like to think art (in general) is important, that it provides meaning, that making something is better than...not.
But looking at the news...
photo of an etching being pulled away from the printing plate photo of a landscape etching lying on top of its copper printing plate on the bed of a small etching press. The etching shows a hill - Macleod's Table South - on the isle of Skye.
April 5, 2025 at 2:51 PM
ianmbrooks.bsky.social
One month today, my show at the Artizan Gallery, Torquay opens, running until end of May. Opening preview Friday April 18, 6-8pm.

www.artizangallery.co.uk
Sepia toned image - an aquatint etching - of a small rocky outcrop in front of a hillside, partly snow covered, and in the distance a silhouetted mountainside, partly shrouded in cloud. Text reads: Far Horizons - Ian Brooks - Artizan Gallery, April 18-May 31
March 18, 2025 at 8:26 AM
ianmbrooks.bsky.social
After a day wrestling with cloud radar data, an evening wrestling with an etching that stubbornly persists in being not-quite-there yet. Here, the inked plate, and 10th state proof being pulled from it.
photo of a copper plate with a landscape - a mountainside - etched on it, inked and ready to print. A landscape etching being pulled from the copper printing plate.
March 12, 2025 at 8:16 PM
ianmbrooks.bsky.social
There is a quote “Printmaking is fun because it takes a perfectly simple process like drawing and makes it as complicated and error prone as possible” - George Boomer.

Feeling that big time on this one. Inching slowly towards completion...probably.
photo of a badly stained wooden work top, on it lies a piece of paper with a black and white tonal image of a mountain side.
March 10, 2025 at 9:17 PM
ianmbrooks.bsky.social
Apparently it's international polar bear day, so here's a couple from spring 2023's ARTofMELT expedition. A cub climbing on one of my equipment cases, and a mother checking out my radiometers - and getting the albedo of her nose measured!
Photos by Åsa Lindgren.
February 27, 2025 at 1:05 PM
ianmbrooks.bsky.social
Advance notice that I have a solo exhibition coming up in Devon, at the Artizan Gallery, Torquay, April 18 - May 31. Opening event Friday April 18, 6-8pm.

www.art-hub.co.uk/ex/apr25
Sepia toned image - an aquatint etching - of a small rocky outcrop in front of a hillside, partly snow covered, and in the distance a silhouetted mountainside, partly shrouded in cloud. Text reads: Far Horizons - Ian Brooks - Artizan Gallery, April 18-May 31
February 23, 2025 at 11:31 AM
ianmbrooks.bsky.social
Macleod's Table North from Ceann Liam - etching - 20x19 cm - edition of 15.

Based on a sketch made from the beach near Dunvagen Castle, Isle of Skye.
black and white aquatint etching of hill top, seen across water and low-lying land.
February 16, 2025 at 1:40 PM
ianmbrooks.bsky.social
Saturday night cat .. it's all a bit much.
Close up photo of a ginger cat lying on a wooden floor, a paw stretched out towards the camera.
February 15, 2025 at 6:27 PM