Is imitation really flattery?

 It's been a while since I last made a blog post but those who have been following the website or my exploits on various Facebook pages will fully understand that my time is limited. Even the On Location pages of the website you will notice that recent explorations onto the fells haven't been posted purely due to this shortage of time.
 Many of you will realise that work has been progressing really well on my Wainwrights in Colour project and at last after all this time there is light at the end of the tunnel. I am truly grateful to those last few customers who have been patiently awaiting the completion of their fells.
 Recent wandering over the fells have meant that I now only have 2 references left to tick off, and one of those is a confirmation of a view which I possibly got wrong. Some long days and a few cracking nights wild camping have resulted in some wonderful experiences which when time allows I will share in full.

Sunset on Coniston Old Man 24.7.14

 

However, it was following the receipt of the Wainwright Society Newsletter in my inbox this morning that I felt motivated to write this blog post.

 The Wainwright's in Colour Project has been my life for the past 8 years, providing my sole income as well as all the stress and concern that comes with that challenge. In all the years since AW published the seven Pictorial Guides it seems that no-one had come up with the idea of painting the views as they are today. Many people have complimented me on coming up with such a unique take on these wonderful works so much so that as you maybe aware I have had some excellent coverage in local and national press as well as being filmed by the BBC. It has turned out to be a mammoth task, getting to the locations, photographing the scenes from exactly the same viewpoint as Wainwright and then interpreting the vista as a scaled watercolour. The sales of the work and the pre-orders for the forthcoming work speak for themselves. I was just so fortunate as a professional artist to by chance come up with this idea and bring it to life.

 My format of framing all the sketches for each fell as a montage complete with hand-painted title really shows off the watercolours to their best and the fact that I personally hand cut each mount individually and then frame them totally "in house" means that this is truly an artists work.



Green Gable fully framed.

I am currently in the process of designing the final layout of the book, like AW, this is fully under my control and I am really proud of what I have achieved.

Arnison Crag- the page from the book.

So, from reading the fore mentioned newsletter another artist has taken it upon himself to undertake the exact same "project" the only difference is that he is using oils as a medium and not watercolours. Now I fully realise that my idea cannot be copyrighted after all the views that AW drew are there for all to photograph, sketch etc. What I do find galling is that this artist has obviously copied my idea instead of coming up with his own original and unique painting project of the Lakeland Fells. Even the way he has mounted the sketches as a montage in a cream mount complete with what looks like a photocopied title underneath copies my layout. So far he has only completed Arnison Crag (he began his project in March 2014- about 8 years behind me) and his images bear little accuracy to AW's view despite his statement "As part of an on-going project I intend to re-visit AW's viewpoints with the aid of his guidebooks and paint them as they are today." unquote.  Sounds familiar?

 In some ways I wish him the best of luck, no one more than me understands the challenge he has set himself. Perhaps when The Wainwright's in Colour book comes out I will sell him a copy and save him some ground work.

 Does all of this make me sound like a bitter old man? I hope not. I'm not bitter after all, sooner or later someone is going to question this artist and say "aren't you just copying Andy Beck's excellent idea?"

 Of course, if I was really bitter I wouldn't share with you this artists website so you can take a look for yourselves: www.simon-whitfield-artist.com.

 By the way, do remember where you heard about the idea first. :)

 Feel free to post a comment either here or on The Teesdale Gallery Facebook page.