How art led a couple to find happiness after bleak times

Dave, a former IT specialist from Halifax, had moved into a converted barn high above Addingham with his wife Ange in the late 1990s.

Ange was diagnosed with ovarian cancer just weeks after moving into the barn – called The Elm – and life changed for them forever.

Dave gave up his job to look after Ange, and they continued to live in the barn for six years, until she died on her birthday in 2004.

Finding himself without income and alone, but with the staunch support of good neighbours and friends, Dave knew he had to get himself back into circulation, rather than finding himself isolated on the top of the moors.

A keen amateur artist, he decided to expand his interest in drawings and watercolours.

It was while exhibiting at Pool Village Hall that he met artist Liz Clarke, who had given up work due to ill-health.

"When Ange died, I was suddenly faced with a dilemma. I didn't want to go back into IT – I was 55 and it was a young man's game really – I couldn't easily pretend nothing had happened and just go back again," says Dave.

"I just knew I had to get off the hillside – I didn't know where, and how, but I knew it would be difficult to say goodbye to the barn that Ange and I had made our own for that short time. Despite the advanced stage of the cancer, Ange had survived for six years after the diagnosis."

Liz says: "I had given up work through ill-health and I, like Dave, found myself on my own – and it was a pretty bleak time really.

"When I was in work, I didn't do any painting as I had the sort of job where I finished late and after such a long day I never felt like doing anything creative.

"I decided to start painting again and sold my first painting at the Winter Gardens Art Show in Ilkley and that spurred me on."

Soon afterwards, a tentative courtship began, with the pair discovering both love and a growing passion for art almost out of nowhere.

Eventually, Dave went to live with Liz, but was still renting The Elm.

The pair soon realised they had the perfect opportunity to use the unique location of The Elm as a gallery, and since opening in July 2005, the beautiful gallery's reputation has blossomed.

"The amazing thing about what has happened to us is that through art, and through a talent we both knew we had but which remained untapped, the pair of us are gently finding inspiration through our love of art. It's a complete change of lifestyle and a new beginning," says Dave.

"I had so many happy memories attached to The Elm even during the period when Ange was ill and I was reluctant to let it go.

"Having it now as a gallery – although an exciting development– felt very strange at first.

"But now it's a perfect way of combining past memories with an exciting new future with Liz. We are two very different characters but, certainly for the pair of us, everything seems to have dropped into place, after a very difficult time for both

of us."

The gallery is now open to the public and features a display of the duo's distinctive works, including original paintings, prints, cards and the many gift items they make from their artwork.

The pair also sell their art cards to shops in Yorkshire and beyond, and are aiming to develop a stronger online presence.

www.the-elm-gallery.co.uk

OVARIAN CANCER - THE FACTS

Ovarian cancer is the fifth most common cancer in women, after breast,

lung bowel, and uterine cancers.

Each year around 6,800 women in the UK are diagnosed with the disease.

It is the biggest gynaecological killer of women in the UK and the fourth most common

cause of death from cancer

in women.

Around two-thirds of those diagnosed will die from the disease.

If found in the early stages, up to 90 per cent of women will survive for more than five years.