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