Summer Pen Y Ghent

Pen-y-Ghent is an iconic hill in the dales, its shape is discernible to all those who know the region, and especially those who have walked up its slopes. The translation of the Gaelic is Hill of the Winds, and is aptly named as it never ceased to blow atop its summit. Being likened at various angles to the back of a whale, an upturned pie, and even a baboon's head; the hill is certainly a focal point for all images of the upper stretches of the Ribble. There are really two hills in one, the main, highest hill is Pen-y-Ghent itself which doglegs away from the river with the smaller, less frequented Plover Hill on the massif's northern slope. A gritstone monolith overshadowing the softer shales and limestones of the Yoredale series, is a remenant of the ice ages which ravaged this part of yorkshire thousands of years ago. Along with its sisters, Ingleborough and Whernside make up the Yorkshire three peaks, this would be the baby of the three, not the highest, but arguably the prettiest.

I painted a pochade in a morning when it stopped raining long enough for me to rush out of the house and complete a sketch in about an hour and a half. The lane is one which leads from Crooks Farm to the main B6479 road, and is typical of the lanes herabouts. South is to the right in the picture and it is interesting to note the fauna along the north side of the path (facing south) is meadowsweet, cow parsley, buttercups and hogweed. The other side of the path is dominated by grasses - these sort of things I onnly note when I am painting the picture.

I liked the scene immensly and wanted it more refined and certainly on a larger scale. I used a 24 x 18" canvas for the finished painting and rather than getting it done in a day spent about a week on the process. Using the Artisan water mixable oils, I have found that to get them to dry so that overpainting is reasonably workable takes about a day and a half. I wasn't aware of the final composition as I was going along and the character (my wife) was chucked in on a whim without any forethought for balance - and yes I am aware I have broke one of the cardinal sins of composition - in that I have a subject matter dead center, this certainly was not my aim although it is growing on me.

And a photo I took while painting the pochade...

Steves Sheep

Oil on canvas, 12x9". She's a Swaledale ewe belonging to a friend of ours painted yesterday. I have always maintained that if you can paint sheep and walls you've made it as an artist in the dales, so as you can tell I'm getting there... (I'm not too happy about the wall). I know the composition is a bit wacky and goes against all of the rules written down on composition, but sometimes I think what the hell, I like this and there's something about it that works.

I know it's a bit clicheed, the ubiquitous sheep and the wall, but really thats the reality of life in the dales, it opitomises life in the dales and not to paint them would miss out on a huge portion of the feeling of the region. So apologies for the clichee... I was thinking last night about painting a similar subject but much larger, however I feel I may be falling into the trap of the stereotype.

Littondale

I have had a 20" x 8" box canvas kicking around the attic for some time, so last week I decided to make some use out of it. The view is along the road from Stainforth to Halton Gill, and after some to-ing and fro-ing in the car like a fat lady getting comfortable on a chair I pointed the boot of the car in the right direction.
What grabbed me about the view is the feeling of distance in this little-visited part of the dales. Most visitors tend to end their trip up Littondale at Arncliffe and then head off to Malham, which is a shame, as one of the best pubs in the county is found at Litton, the Queens Arms is a great place for sunday lunch following a walk around the river, it also offers B&B accomodation. This is the view from the top road looking southeast down the valley.

Initially the scene was painted in some rather old acrylics I have kicking around the studio, and rather wish I hadn't, although the skies look leaden the day was rather warm and the paints dried instantly on the canvas which made blending nigh-on impossible. Also you can probably guess I painted the sky first (when the day was a bit duller) and the hills later on, as the sky cleared somewhat, still the result is rather pleasing.