1st November, Wharfe

I do like a painting with some narrative to it, especially when you don’t have to think too hard. This lovely little one-up-one-down cottage is captured the morning after Halloween in this pretty little hamlet of Wharfe. Only a little painting (10in x 8in) it sold as it was drying after posting on a very social media platform.

I used the (now normal) procedure of vaguely sketching out the composition with charcoal, then blocking in the basic colours and tones with acrylics – remembering to mute them as they can often dry way too gaudy (for my liking), and then having fun with some fast-drying oils, finessing and fiddling with it on a third sitting. I have to admit I am preferring these 10” x 8” boards to paint on as a very cost effective solution to canvas boards, with a triple coating of gesso and sanded back to a smooth finish, although the tooth of the medium can still be seen as I have used a brush to apply the gesso and not a roller, which in my eye gives the painting more immediacy.

1st November, Wharfe, Oil on board, 10" x 8"

The Blue Barn, Crummackdale

On the track out of Wharfe up Whitestone Lane towards Crummackdale sits this photogenic little barn. I adore the vernacular hereabouts as one building style differs from the other depending upon the area, the geology and the wealth of the farmer. Some have wonderful corbels, some have expensive carved lintels, some are crudely built but each one has its own personality and story. A walk on a late autumn day with a low sun, just catching on the tops was the immediate trigger for this little painting.

Its a difficult feeling to convey, but just ambling round the dales without a specific purpose of finding a subject often results in some absolute wonders. The painting was painted on a triple-primed mdf panel and sanded back, following the usual acrylic blocking in - the alkyd oils were used to pull out the detail and drag the painting together. I dont always work this way, sometimes I will use promarkers to build the tones but more recently the acrylic underpainting has taken precedent.

If you have never been to Crummackdale and Wharfe - I highly recommend it, its one of those beautifully secluded valleys whose secrets pop out at you through exploration.

Blue Barn, Crummackdale. 10" x 8" oil on panel.

The Ruined Church - Bishop Thornton

St John's church, Bishop Thornton. 

Something a bit on the Gothic side for a change. Inspired by Casper David Frederick's The Abbey in the Oakwood, this ruined church has enchanted me for 35 or so years, ever since I came across a photo in Richard Muir's excellent Shell Guide to the English Landscape. This solitary tower isolated in an island of tombs never fails to make the hairs on the back of my neck stand up, and I hope to have represented my feelings about this captivating place with this painting, the arms of the bare trees clawing out to the tower like bony hands, the gravestones are probably more dishevelled here than in reality and the path certainly does not exist, but hey, its a painting not a photo.

I have painted and sketched it en Plein air with little success, but here in this 8" x 10" I have finally scratched that itch. There's some narrative as the dried flowers on one of the graves attest to provide something a little bit extra.

The Ruined Church - Bishop Thornton 10" x 8" Oil on Board

The Grass is Always Greener?

I had this old board kicking around, primed, painted and coloured with a grey emulsion mixed with gesso subsequently sanded down and left. The gallery was looking a little bare and without a massive push to paint anything in particular the fallback of sheep and walls was the decided option. The view is loosely North Ribblesdale upon the track known as Goat Scar Lane leading down to Stainforth. I have painted and photographed this track numerous times in the past so I wasn’t deficient of reference material, although I was probably (rather worryingly) overawed by the amount of sheep photographs in my collection.

There is a case for narrative in this painting, I have walked  up this track and come across some escapees from the adjacent fields, these three depict the sheep from my recollections of that walk and their need for better pastures on the other side of the wall, but really are they any better off? I don’t know and I suspect neither do the sheep. As so often happens the title develops with the painting. I’m just wondering if art critics of the future depict the painting as allegorical, I suppose it is, but it wasn’t painted as such, I’m not that clever. This was painted as the standard view of the dales - sheep and walls…

The Grass is Always Greener? 12in x 12in - Oil on Panel

Watlowes

Painted in the spring of 2019 following a stroll from Malham back home to Stainforth. The dry valley of Watlowes above Malham Cove has provided me with inspiration before, although I have found it a tricky subject to paint. That previous time, I was painting it en-plein air, the flat overcast light of winter with drab colours and very little contrast of shadows, just deadened the view, and muddied the painting and blurred the lines of distance. I returned to Watlowes in the spring with some strong, low shadows which helped enhance the composition and also provided a bit of aerial recession. I shall be painting this dry valley again as I think it has a lot more to offer, perhaps a winter view, but for now I am happy with the addition of this tricky one to my repertoire.

Geologically the dry valley was carved out at the end of the last ice age when a glacial moraine was burst through with meltwater creating a torrent that carved this valley and the dry waterfall of Malham Cove below. The stream now follows a similar path but some way underground through a series of caves within the Limestone; only once in a blue moon does water flow through this valley and over the cove at Malham, the last time was recorded in February 2014.

Watlowes, Spring 2019, Oil on Panel, 12" x 8" ish

Ronnie & Reggie - Inglebro

Sometimes inspiration nudges you in strange ways. I have had this photo of Ingleborough for some time, not knowing what to do or how to proceed with it, the composition is lacking, the tones don't work - but for a basis of a painting I think it has something, but it needs a little more. So I used the photo for a watercolour sketch to play around with different 'moods', the watercolour sketch, although quite muddy made up my mind about how to proceed.

'Inspirational' photo

Rather messy compositional w/c with notes and sheep

Following sketching out the main components (incorrectly I may add), the entire painting was blocked in using my most favourite acrylics to define the tones and final colours... at this point (unlike most times) I paused, and left the painting on the easel for a couple of days while figuring out what to do next as the acrylic dried darker, gaudier, and more primitive than I envisaged (or planned).

The fun was to start with the oils, they allowed me to change the composition - rectifying where I had fouled up with the original pre-acrylic sketch  -you might see this in the sky above the left hand side of the hill - the original skyline was much higher which in retrospect didn't look right so was altered during the oiling in stage (actually half-way through!)

The sheep, I have christened Ronnie and Reggie have a passing similarity to their more infamous alter-egos in my warped subconscious - hence the title.

Ronnie and Reggie - Inglebro Oil on Board 12" x 10"

Smearsett Sheep

Oops, missed this one out. Fortunately for me this one sold, and I felt it necessary to include this into the blog, although it was painted int he spring of 2017. An inversion, an appetite for a painting, some sheep and Smearsett Scar were the ingredients for this one. The low lying mist in North Ribblesdale was the main inspiration for this although its not perfectly captured here, I hope the atmosphere of the cloudy sky and the appearance of the mist toward the left of the painting give some impression to the meteorological phenomenon that was most impressive when I painted this. The trio of Dalesbreds are more of an afterthought bringing a little bit of interest (if that floats your boat!) to the composition.

Smearsett Sheep, Oil on Board 10" x 8"