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