Adventures In A Painted Landscape

I’ve been out sketching again. At the moment we’re having a lot of sunny but cold days and I’ve been finding there’s just enough time to sum up a scene in pencil before going completely numb. The Howgills continue to elude me. They have fabulous shapes that resemble sleeping forms (I think human, but they’re famously supposed to be elephants) but they’re so huge it’s difficult to know how to fit them into a picture without losing the mass. The sketch below was made in a lonely valley that I love. I’m trying to learn its shape and work out what to do with it. The second sketch was just capturing a lovely moment sitting on a strip of a path somewhere very high up in the sun.

'sleeping' form in pencil, A6

on Crook fell, pencil A6

… with no home to go to since I removed the other two pages of the Fellpainter site. These were previously on the gallery page. I’ve temporarily condensed the site down to just the blog page while I decide what to do with the rest of it.

another hill painting, oil on paper, 9x12

hill painting, oil on paper, 9x12

I’d been waiting for this painting to dry for some time and finally this evening it was ready to go on the scanner. One of the drawbacks of living in a very cold flat I suppose! (The advantage being the huge windows – the very things that let all the heat out in the first place – grrr.)

I was happy with the clouds as I’ve been trying to capture the amazing dusky colours over and over again. Things generally change so fast as the light wanes it’s quite difficult to paint anything that’s more than a frantic daub. The ground below I was less satisfied with on the first attempt and I had to tweak it quite a bit until it gave in.

Purple Clouds oil on canvas 6x8 inches