Forging a Path

Last year, when we had a summer, we took a number of photos of the kids at play in the fields around the house. A nice, simple composition which utilises light effects rather than detail, I painted this one on a crimson ground as there is not much of that primary in the painting itself, and I hoped to conteract this by using red as a ground, and occasionally it filters through.

"Forging a path" Oil on canvas 20" x 16"

The light streaming through the trees was a last minute addition, having showed the 'completed' image to the wife, she asked "is it finished?" as the initial composition had a break in the trees through which the sky could be seen, and when this was portrayed on canvas had the resemblence to a very pale sky-blue blob in the middle of the trees (her words, not mine)... I had to agree with her, it looked - well wrong. So I scraped back the blob, darkened it out and slapped in some lime green which I smeared across the canvas, all of this must have taken about 15 minutes, from her appraisal to the finished article. It just shows what can be achieved given the need.

Stone Sentinel, Moughton

Between Crummackdale and Ribblesdale is an upland block of Carboniferous limestone overlying Silurian siltstone, part of the Ingleborough massif called Moughton, which I believe is translated as 'pile of rocks'. The unconformity (between the Silurian and the Carboniferous) is of huge interest to the geologist where the limestone is horizontally-bedded on top of the steeply-dipping Silurian siltstones; the limestone on top of the plateau is of interest to the botanist also with numerous (sometimes rare) calciphiles inhabiting the cracks (grykes) between the limestone blocks (clints). The area is one of peace and solitude and a wonderful place to relax and chill out (quite literally).

The first time I explored the area I came across this stone structure, this cairn sits atop the limestone pavement near Long Scar, being in that frame of mind I considered it then, and wondered why someone had gone to the time and effort of building it. It stands about 6ft high, and is obviously of some antiquity given the amount of lichen / moss growth, it could be a waymarker - as there is a safe route down Long Scar not so far away from it, but it's still a distance away - personally I like to think it was built by some bored shepherd as a walling 'apprentice-piece'.

On a very (very) cold day last November I decided to go for a bit of a paint, (and spurred on having read one of David Bellamy's books intimating at painting in all weathers - although I draw the line at rain and snow) and equipped with my pochade box I climbed the path close to Dry-Rigg Quarry and onto the Moughton uplands. It was perishingly cold, but hugely relaxing, and as I was slapping the paint onto the pochade a stoat came out of hiding to have a look what I was doing, normally I don't like visitors, but I didn't begrudge the curiousity of a stoat.

I wasn't originally planning on this one being a 'biggie', but with a moment of inspiration I had a bash at it, changing the compsition somewhat through the process of the painting. Having painted it I know what I could do better and if I re-do this or painting some more limestone scenery I will be able to apply these technique changes.

The Stone Sentinel, Moughton Oil on canvas 18" x 14"

Regardless I like the feeling of solitude and drearyness (again), and I am certainly inspired enough to have another bash at Moughton's karst landscape. I reccomend anyone to go there and experience the lunar landscape, it has a feeling all to its own.

http://www.davidbellamy.co.uk/

Barns

Barns.

I have sketched and drawn numerous barns around the vicinity (of Horton), and there are hundreds to choose from, and in this post I have thrown in a few of my sketches. I suppose like sheep and walls they are another ubiquitous symbol of the Dales, but sadly a lot are in disrepair - the maintaining and rebuilding costs of the barns far outweigh their use. Originally these laithes were used for the overwintering of cattle and fodder storage, they are numerous so the heavy items (hay) did not have to be transported far from where they were harvested, and manure from the cattle over winter could be spread on the nearby fields. However with modern agricultural techniques, transportation of materials is far easier therefore reducing the necessity of numerous barns.

But as ruins in themselves these have a strangely romantic quality, and aside from being practical buildings they stir imaginations, why is this? What is it about ruined barns that drags us in, what is it about these weather-worn broken-down buildings?

In the landscape of the Pennines (away from my local area) the barn is depicted as a black monolith at the conjunction of black walls against a field of yellow ochre, with a feeling of tempest in the air. Two words in literature echo this emotion, Wuthering Heights.

The paintings of Peter Brook mirror this feeling, his depiction of the field barn in the landscape epitomises the West Yorkshire Pennines, especially those painted against a winter scene, they have a true 'Yorkshire' feeling about them. One can look at a Peter Brook image of a barn in winter and automatically place the part of the county it depicts, and it is interesting to note Peter Brook commonly used sand mixed in with his paint which added  extra texture to his paintings.

So because of these barns were built using locally available material (avoiding transportation costs), they reflect the local geology and therefore mirror the landscape of their surroundings. Where I live, in the heart of Limestone Country, the barn takes on a different persona. Local limestone is used for the walls and laithes and overall appears as a much brighter, lighter (dare I say it, a 'happier') place than the brooding sandstone and gritstones of the southern Pennine scenery.

http://www.peterbrookart.co.uk/

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.

Jervaulx - A Cracking Bit of Wensleydale

A Cracking Bit of Wensleydale.
Apologies for the cheesy title, but this part of lower Wensleydale is a fantastic place to while away a few hours. The owners of the Abbey have done, and are doing a wonderful job of maintenence, and any visitor to the abbey ruins are highly recomended to visit the excellent tea shop / restaurant across the road. We visited the abbey a couple of times last year with the family, and had a great day, sketching and painting in the ground while the children explored and picnicked. I made some sketches but the painting was from a number of photos taken on the better of the two days.

Jervaulx - compsitional sketch

I made the compositional sketch in one afternoon from a couple of photos, and set to with the painting. I didn't rush this one, initially the main colours were underpainted in acrylic (which I find dry much darker than when initially laid) hence the blue of the sky is much darker than I originally intended, and rather than looking for texture I was trying to achieve more flatter areas of colour, so that any variations (e.g. the party, the trees and the building structure) would not just stand out tonally, but also texturally.

A Cracking Bit of Wensleydale - Oil on Canvas 20" x 16"

The title of the painting came to me while I was laying down the acrylic underpainting, having just watched one of Nick Park's animations with the kids, and have to say I was grinning inanely while slapping on the paint. I quite like the painting although it's not to my wife's taste. For me the learning process with the tones of the middle-distance trees was an important one. In the past I have found full summer foliage a bit of a weak point, but following this now feel more confident with this aspect of landscape painting.

Incidentally Jervaulx is a corruption of Yore Vale, i.e. the valley of the River Ure, which flows nearby, although the modern valley is named after one of the main towns through which the river flows - i.e. Wensleydale. And at the head of Wensleydale is the creamery where the cracking cheese of that name is made.

http://www.wensleydale.co.uk/
http://www.jervaulxabbey.com/

Clare on a G String

Ok so I know it's not a landscape of the Dales, but it's one of my most recent paintings.

This was painted for a friend's 40th. Getting the feeling right was the problem for me here  - originally I wanted just a painting of her violin, but I thought this would have been too lifeless, and a bit clichee'd, and after several attempts at getting things right, and lots of scrubbing I hit a wall - I had in effect drawn a blank, I just couldn't make the painting look personal... I then hit upon a figurative idea, and had a bit of a sketching session while Clare was rehearsing for a concert with Burnley Concert Orchestra, this went well.

I had originally thought of making the Clare the main subject, against a dark / featureless background, but as they were going through some drastic changes to their new house I thought it would be fun to make a comment of this. This is relfected in the half-completed breeze-block wall, the tea-towels drying, and the laundry hanging down over the Aga, adding what I thought was a touch of 'reality' to the image. I also did not want to over-glamourise the issue of 'violin practice', hence the blue-hooded top, it is in fact a moment in time captured.The perspective was also important - I wanted everything to lead into the painting and away to the left, and I suppose it takes the viewer on a little trip through Clare and Graeme's half-built kitchen

"Clare on a G-string" Oil on cavas 14" x 18"
I'm not sure how the painting has gone down at their household, I know I have had several comments regarding the raw breeze-block wall, I guess I could have painted in the exposed pipe-work, but I thought that may be going too far, and I'm sure Graeme would not have thanked me for that. I just hope they don't mind me putting it on display here...

The little dipper

As I am currently offshore, I thought I might update this with some of my older paintings, this one in particular was a joy to paint. The river close to home is a fast flowing upland section of the Ribble, perfect territory for dippers, and on a few rounds around the circuit I spent some time watching these little birds. They were nesting underneath the footbridge that crosses the river, and being in a particular frame of mind decided to have a go at painting one. Previously I had been reading Keith Shackleton's autobiogrpahy in pictures, and was fixated by his paintings of birds. Another artist who I admire immensly with relation to wildlife is Martin Ridley whose website is a huge store of inspiration for me.
http://www.martinridley.com/index.html

So motivated was I to get this painting done I decided to go for acrylics rather than oils as I really wanted more of an instant result. I took some photos and drew some sketches of the birds in question (having a good spotting scope helped) and sat down and actually planned my painting.

Most of the time I usually thrash one out, a reproduction of what I see, but in this one having seen how proper artists go about things I decided to sit down and do a large sketch on plain lining wallpaper (cheap and really effective for the purpose).

Having decided on my composition and tones I transferred the sketch to cryla paper and using a very watery consistency blobbed in the main areas of colour. I've included a photo of my 'studio' set-up, the laptop is great, as I can change tonal values and work out areas of contrast, although it does get splashed from time to time when I get carried away, the 'studio' is in fact my attic space, and due to a lack of natural daylight (!), I supplement this with two daylight simulation lamps.

And so the finished article, I was really cracking on with this, but it did take me a couple of days to get it done, and I'm rather plased with him, although there are a couple of places that I think need refining. I'm not too happy about the bird's shadow or his coat, but this is all going in the bank of 'what to avoid in the future'.

"The little dipper" Acrylic on paper 14"x10"