Wild Boar Fell and Mallerstang

It's taken me quite a while to get round to this painting. I tooks some photos of the scene some years ago while walking around Grisedale, the day was a cold, frosty February morning, and as I approached the buildings at High Shaw Paddock with Wild Boar Fell in the distance this was the scene that greeted me. With the highlighted farm in the middle ground the fells in the distance took on a bleak(er) look. I painted the scene in two sittings, allowing the first covering to dry before proceeding, but still maintains an 'alla prima' look.

I had some fun with the foreground - I wasn't bothered after all it was painted as a trial piece on a bit of primed hardboard. I 'borrowed' a plastic brush from my daughter to achieve the texture of the reeds and plenty of paint with scratching and blending with my fingers, and I quite like it - it achieved it's purpose and now that cheap plastic brush has a new home (apologies to my daughter).

Wild Boar Fell and Mallerstang, Oil on Board 16" x 12"

So, even though I painted this as a 'trial' piece, I am pleased with the way it turned out, and it gives a feeling of the drearyness of the scene; it shows another face of the dales - away from the brighter landscapes of the Limestone Dales of the southern and western half, and the more open landscapes of Wensleydale. This, one of the northern dales, the landscape reflects the geology, a hard, dark gritstone, more akin to the sandstones of the Mid-Pennines.