IT ALL STARTED WITH…

…Barbara and her Spanish husband Paco’s observations (as writer and photographer) on the contrasting countryside, habitats and wildlife on the doorsteps of their homes in Catalunya, Spain, and Wensleydale in the Yorkshire Dales.

Their first exhibition Passing Through (2019) presented a series of tree portraits and poetry contrasting the beauty offered by a neglected, timber-dry Spanish woodland with that of a protected, damp, mossy broadleaf gill in the Dales.

Their second exhibition, The Cry of the Curlew (2024) presents a series of reflections on the beauty and fragility of the enigmatic Curlew. For many years Barbara and Paco returned, like the birds themselves, to the same upland fells and meadows around Wensleydale and Swaledale to hear the Curlew’s soul-stirring cry and to observe these and other birds nesting and parenting their young.

The book and exhibitions present images, prose and poems exposing the meaning humans place on the presence of such beauty in our lived experience, and on what we shall lose of ourselves if these ground-nesting birds disappear forever from the sight and soundscape of our lives.

http://www.thecryofthecurlew.com
http://www.murrayvalera.com

BARBARA MURRAY

Cumbrian author Barbara has always been a nature-child and an avid reader. After gaining an M. Litt. in Creative Writing with Distinction from Glasgow University, she developed a passion for nature writing and for writing historical fiction. A book of short stories is forthcoming, and she is currently working on her debut novel, set in Wensleydale in the 1700s.

PACO VALERA

Paco’s lifelong love and study of photography has taken him across the world in search of light, contrast and story. After many years of business travel, Paco realized that everything he wished to convey photographically was available at home – right on his doorsteps – in the Yorkshire Dales in the UK and in Catalunya, Spain. 

Paco is currently working on a number of projects involving his love of seascape, landscape and nature-wildlife photography. Paco revisits his carefully chosen subjects over many years, deepening the relationships between the subjects, himself and his cameras in order to continually reveal their stories and characters.