Fire and Ice, Blencathra
Image 33cm x 33cm
Framed 59cm x 59cm
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People travel a long way to see the northern lights. But if you happen to be in the right place at the right time, you can sometimes see them much closer to home.
Winter Light
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Framed 59cm x 59cm
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I have been at this very spot so many times.
And every time is different of course.
No two days are exactly the same. Each one is unique in the eternal story of that place.
Oops sorry! got a bit carried away there..
Winter Hill Embroidery
Image 25cm x 25cm
Framed 51cm x 51cm
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We often walk up Winter Hill ramp with our pal and there is a point about half way when the gradient eases a little, the view northwards opens out and the light distinctly changes. Very often that is the place where we will stop for a minute and admire the local landscape, whilst wondering where Louis has got to.. and on a murky day like today, even though the view is completely lost, the light still changes.
Late Arrivals
Image 37cm x 37cm
Framed 59cm x 59cm
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Every creature in the world, including us, must find a place to sleep each night. And if you happen to be close to water just before the sun sets, you will occasionally witness tonight’s late arrivals. They must have travelled a long way, I always think.
Matterdale
Image 38cm x 38cm
Framed 64cm x 64cm
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I sketched this from high up on Matterdale Common, below Great Dodd. It is a large and featureless, very ‘quaggy’ sheep-grazed upland - so very few people feel any need at all to venture off the main footpath in order to visit. But on close exploration, as so often, you will find, on a nice sunny day, lots of ‘micro’ interest plus a nice local view of Great Mell Fell and Little Mell Fell, down there in the dale.
Wetlands
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Framed 64cm x 64cm
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In the years after the second World War, especially from the 60s onwards, whilst I was growing up, Cumbrian hill farmers were financially incentivised by the government to drain upland mires with a view to ‘improving’ them for grazing purposes.
At the same time, they also received ‘per head’ support to increase the numbers of their livestock, of which sheep were the easiest to manage. Sadly, this unwittingly resulted in a disastrous loss of bio-diversity whilst at the same time favouring the rapid expansion of those various ‘rough’ grasses which the sheep do not like to eat.
Fortunately, those very same upland farmers can nowadays take advantage of generous incentives to block up those very same drains in order that Mother Nature can take back control.
Which, thankfully, she seems able still to do pretty quickly, given the chance. Incredible really. And very lucky for us.
Autumn along the Greta
Image 25cm 25cm
Framed 51cm x 51cm
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The Greta is only about five miles long but it has been called “the greatest little river in the world” which almost saves me from having to say anything else. And it can be surveyed and admired very easily throughout all of its most beautiful first four miles by way of the Keswick-to-Threlkeld old railway track. It is everything that you might ever hope for in a tumultuous upland river. Possibly the greatest little river in the world? I painted this quiet stretch from the river bank just below bridge number 74.
Grune Point (study)
Image 18cm x 18cm
Framed 39cm x 39cm
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I love Grune Point, including its dour sounding name.
When the wind is blowing through and the clouds are jostling past and the waves are rolling in, it can feel like the edge of the known world. Finisterre?
That happens most days, of course.
Blencathra from Burns
Image 33cm x 33cm
Framed 59cm x 59cm
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Ahem.. Paul Cézanne painted Mont Sainte-Victoire in France dozens of times. (You cannot paint the same mountain twice, of course) :-)
And I have two such obsessions, of which Blencathra is by far the biggest and the highest.
So I will no doubt carry on painting Blencathra, time and time again.
Me and Cézanne.. (sigh)
April Gorse on the Solway
Image 18cm x 18cm
Framed 35cm x 35cm
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I have read that in the olden days, bonfires of gorse were lit on May Day to scare away the bad fairies. Probably because it flowers early and is already ablaze with colour even before the torch goes in.
White Sike, inside Matterdale Forest
Image 38cm x 38cm
Framed 64cm x 64cm
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White Sike begins life as a simple upland ‘drain’ off the Old Coach Road, cutting its way across the sheep-grazed common via a narrow trench before entering the trees in what I think of as Matterdale Forest, a very old conifer plantation which is stock-fenced all around and is basically impenetrable unless you are a very determined explorer and wearing a hard hat, like me.
Once inside, however, you discover a veritable Amazon jungle, completely unexplored, and White Sike becomes the Amazon.
It is an astonishing hidden world, mainly comprising a pine-needle desert floor but with sunlit corridors along the course of White Sike and clearings filled with ghostly dead trees and great cushions of star grass.
Hogweed, Horrocks Fields
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Framed 51cm x 51cm
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Hogweed just refuses to ever die back after flowering. It sets seed but then, instead of fading away, it just goes on and on, happy to still be there, until destroyed by January gales, I suppose. In the meantime, though, its tall and skeletal presence always catches the eye when the light is right and it is possibly at its artistic best when covered with hoar frost.
Racing Clouds, Winter Hill
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Framed 51cm x 51cm
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You can often see the Ribble estuary and Blackpool Tower out west from the summit plateau of Winter Hill. But not today.
Mountain Pass
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Framed 59cm x 59cm
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Groove Beck helps to drain the lonely mires of Matterdale Common down into Trout Beck. Most of it runs quite close to the long footpath up Great Dodd from the Old Coach Road, but it is almost always out of sight from there and is rarely visited. To see the best of Groove Beck, you must stick to its banks, ideally downstream from its source on the Common. It is a lovely upland beck, full of interest throughout, extensive views and with only sheep for company.
Hogweed Morning
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Framed 52cm x 52cm
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Hogweeds and Cow Parsley are high profile hedgerow plants designed very technically to position their umbrellas for best advantage. The hard work of Spring and Summer has clearly paid off and the seed heads are now ready to take the Autumn breeze.
Fernhill Barns
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Framed 52cm x 52cm
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Gale Farm and Fernhill Farm lie between Belmont Road and Dunscar golf course, but keeping a very low profile, almost out of sight of the busy traffic.
But today, after a heavy shower, the roofs of the barns shone like old silver, for all to see.
Autumn Fields, Pooley Bridge
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Framed 52cm x 52cm
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There is a lot to see around Pooley Bridge, not least Ullswater and the River Eamont, with beautiful landscapes around.
But today, what caught my eye was a simple burst of Autumn sunshine which appeared late on and bathed the fields across the river from where we were staying.
Hogweed, Winter Hill
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Framed 52cm x 52cm
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Always stands out from the crowd, keen to see whatever may be going on around them. Don’t want to miss anything.
One of my favourite subjects.
Colours of Autumn
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Framed 52cm x 52cm
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Took me by surprise this.
When I was young, a very famous art tutor advised me that, when trying to capture the essence of a scene in front of you, you should begin with the bit that excites you the most and then just work out from there till you get to the edges of the paper.
Well that’s exactly what I did !