'I've fulfilled a dream by opening a solo exhibition at Yorkshire Sculpture Park'

Those feelings are very much present in the work of renowned illustrator and designer Louise Lockhart whose largest solo exhibition to date is currently on display at the Yorkshire Sculpture Park.

Cake Crumbs and Lemonade, which takes over the upper space of the YSP visitor centre, showcases around 60 new works by Lockhart that celebrate the charm of everyday life.

They feature high street shopfronts, bustling markets, seaside rituals, fairgrounds and hand-painted signs, all underpinned with a gentle humour.

Lockhart’s evocative prints, which she creates through collage and printmaking using hand-cut paper shapes and expressive line drawings, may prompt fond memories that transport the viewer back in time, but they are also very much about today.

“Some people have described them as nostalgic, but I want them to be about now too,” says Lockhart. “In a way they are timeless as they are about things that we have always enjoyed – like going to the seaside or trips to the fairground, and those are things that we still do now.

"I have put the work into categories – seaside, fairgrounds, the park and towns. These are all places we continue to go to for leisure and pleasure. I feel that everyone, no matter what age or background, can identify with a day out at the seaside.”

That is certainly true. As an island nation, at some point in our lives we will all have been on an outing to a coastal resort.

For me personally, memories of soggy sandwiches on an ill-advised beach picnic on a wet Sunday in Scarborough may pop up alongside balmy summer holidays when you were able to swim in the sea without turning blue.

It is a very British phenomenon and it is those quirky and unique elements of the national psyche and experience that Lockhart seeks to highlight and celebrate.

“I want the work to be joyful and have that sense of Britishness about it,” she says. “It is also about showcasing the value of simple pleasures.

"I always think it is easier to be negative than positive and, especially at the moment, I want to provide an upbeat antidote to the news.”

Although she and her husband and children recently relocated to South Wales, Lockhart grew up in Hebden Bridge in a creative family.

“My parents met in the 1970s when they were both part of a theatre company called Welfare State,” she says.

“Like a lot of artists at that time they moved to Hebden Bridge because it was cheap to buy property there.

"They bought an old dye works with three other families, converting it into living spaces and workshops. There were always lots of props and other bits of theatre stuff around when I was growing up.

"My mum was a textile teacher at Bradford College and my dad worked with IOU Theatre in Halifax. As a child I was always drawing; I drew things around me people and animals – I think it was the way that I processed the world.

"I used to love trips to Salts Mill and I remember looking closely at David Hockney’s work. I knew that when I grew up, I wanted to do something connected with drawing.”

She went on to study illustration at Glasgow School of Art and has had a successful career as a children’s book illustrator alongside running her own business and brand The Printed Peanut, selling a range of beautifully illustrated products and items from art prints to greetings cards, tea towels to tote bags.

From her studio on her farm near the Brecon Beacons, Lockhart makes work that draws inspiration from the small details that we might take for granted but which give places their character and flavour. Her work finds beauty in the everyday or the overlooked.

Working on the YSP project, she says, has been an interesting challenge.

“With illustration commissions, working on children’s books, I am used to getting a strict brief so this was the first time I could really make art just for myself. In some ways it was quite hard, but then I just went back to what I really like – closely observing day-to-day life, the one-offs, the characteristically British. It was lovely.”

With all her work and her approach to it, Lockhart honours the craft of printmaking, its particular skills and its original purpose in allowing more people to have access to art that they could understand and afford.

“Every single piece in the show is a hand-made print and I knew I wanted to make it in an analogue way – it is my antidote to AI,” she says.

“I love collecting print ephemera like old packaging and matchboxes, they really inspire my work and I have only used British printers, long established for many years, who are still printing in a traditional way.”

For the exhibition she has also revisited techniques she hasn’t used for a while including letter press printing.

“I did a bit when I was at Glasgow School of Art and what I love about it is that you get interesting textures and blobs of ink, it’s got a lovely feel to it.

"You would never get that kind of slight imperfection on a digital print and it makes each one individual.

"Printmaking was designed to make art accessible to the masses. I want my work to be accessible and affordable, for everyone to understand it straight away and for children to be able to engage with it.

"I hope that anyone of any age will identify with my work; it is very inclusive.”

As an artist Lockhart has found the experience of working on the exhibition very rewarding, having the opportunity to be able to take some time out and focus on making work and the process.

“When you rely on your own art for your income, it can be hard to carve out some time to play and experiment,” she says.

“I have really valued the chance to do that with this exhibition and to explore my own creative practice. It has been incredibly fulfilling.

"It is a bit like on a farm when you have a fallow year; it will make everything grow again in the future.”

Her longstanding connection to the YSP has also meant that the show feels like a very special moment.

“The Yorkshire Sculpture Park was somewhere we visited often as a family when I was growing up, so it has been a big part of my life. I used to daydream that one day I might have a show there. I can’t quite believe it’s happened; I’m so pleased.

" I would like the exhibition to be joyful and accessible to anyone; the world around us is full of joy if we take the time to really look at it. I hope people will celebrate those small pleasures and create more memories for themselves and their families.”

Louise Lockhart: Cake Crumbs and Lemonade is at the Upper Space in the Visitor Centre at the Yorkshire Sculpture Park until June 28. All the works on display in the exhibition are available to buy. A range of merchandise incorporating Lockhart’s designs, including silk scarves, lunchboxes, tea towels, greetings cards and pin badges, are on sale in the YSP shop.