Painting in the Dales: Knight Stainforth

Looking downhill from the west towards Knight Stainforth (Little Stainforth) and Stainforth beyond. Knight Stainforth Hall is the white building in the middle ground and now home to a caravan park. Although the date stone above the hall has the building aged from 1707, the building (or parts of it) is far older. It was a miserable day, no bright sunlight, no strong shadows and for that I was quite grateful, more often than not the strong shadows dominate the painting, however I'm pleased to portray this scene in the all-too often 'a bit overcast'.

Knight Stainforth, Oil on Panel 8" x 10"

Sometimes while painting, the feeling just flows and the painting looks right from the start to the finish... this was not one of them, there were a couple of u-bends and a couple of times I got the feeling to bin the lot. I am glad I persevered with this however, and there lieth the lesson... I have had a similar issue with books or watching a film its that mid part, when nothing seems to be happening, nothing clicks and its at that point, perserverence must kick in; subsequently something drops into place and it all works out, but that 'wall' exists in whatever I am doing. That question 'can I be bothered to finish what I started?' is always there, and I have dozens of unfinished paintings which have hit the wall and no further progress has been made, indeed I have with books and films that I started watching / reading, but gave up for something else / better.

In essence I am glad I continued the momentum, and not produced a half-arsed, half worked piece but completed it as I had already seen in my minds eye. Hope this works for you as it has for me.

Out of fun I have posted some photos of the work in progress, the painting was completed in a matter of hours (such is working on smallish panels). As I have had no formal training or lessons, everything I learned about painting is from the net, books and trial and error; my style, techniques and materials are flexible and evolutionary, perhaps they may be old hat to some but I feel that I am treading on new ground every time I adopt one (for instance the use of turps rather than white spirit!!!)