Wainwright's First Big Day.

Following on from the previous days celebrations to mark the 80th  anniversary of AW's trip to Orrest Head, I considered that it would be interesting to follow up that day by re-tracing his steps for what would have been his first ever venture up on to the high lakeland fells. After resting the night in Windermere, AW and his cousin set off on the morning of 8th June 1930 to walk from Windermere to Pooley Bridge. So it was that 80 years on I would follow his route.

Thornthwaite Crag, this was to be AW's very first lakeland fell summit. The route for the day basically followed the High Street ridge, his day was in better weather, for me it rained most of the time.

Many miles later we ended up here at the Crown Inn, Pooley Bridge where in 1930 AW and his cousin spent the night before continuing their walking tour of the fells. For me it was an interesting day to follow in the footsteps of the man whose later work has been so important to me recently. The full album of photographs for the day are online at: http://www.theteesdalegallery.co.uk/

Looking out on Winter/Spring.

 The idea of heading over to the Lakes for the day crossed my mind when I heard that snow was forecast in Cumbria. Overnight it had caused chaos up in Dumfries and Galloway. Its not that I need to have a walk on the fells for the sake of it but rather that there is just one reference for the project that would like to tick off. It is a view of a fell which Wainwright drew in full winter conditions and I would like to capture it in the same season if at all possible.
 With the wonders of modern technology is was able to get an one the spot weather report from Sean McMahon who is located in Cumbria. (if you are a fan of the Lake District, fellwalking etc his website is well worth a look Striding Edge.) Following his report I decided to give a day out a miss- too much low cloud I thought to make my day a success.
 So was a day given over to sketches in the studio. As I did so I looked out across the moor to seem the mixture of weather today, sun, rain and light snow showers all passed by. I work on about 6 to 8 sketches at one time, whilst washes of watercolour are drying on one sketch I move on to another. Hardly "mass production" but a good method to make the best of my time.
Here's another couple of small sketches (out of the six) that I completed today.

High Street from Blea Water.

I managed to get this reference for this shot on my second visit here. Luckily I timed it just right as moments later the low cloud engulfed the summit.

Broad Crag, Scafell Pike.

This little sketch measures only about 9cm x 7cm so I was able to complete it in between other work. All in all it was a successful day, the trip to the lakes will happen soon enough.

On the Easel

The forecasted snow never turned up, instead it was a day of pretty constant rain making for a day in the studio. Work progressed on the Wainwrights in Colour sketches. It is tempting to work on some of the more interesting scenes from differing fells but with a bit of discipline I just work my way through the paintings. Its quite a challenge but no the less still very enjoyable as every little drawing reminds me of a great day out on the fells.

Long Stile from High Street.

A reference obtained just a couple of weeks ago with a good snow cover on the upper reaches of the ridge.

Ill Bell summit cairn.

Just one of the cairns that stand on this Far Easten Fell. I still have a couple of references to obtain to complete this set of sketches. The route is planned, I just need a good day weatherwise.

In addition to this Blog, The Teesdale Gallery can now be found on Facebook, just search for the name The Teesdale Gallery.

Purely studio work

It was a day for getting on with some of the Wainwrights in Colour sketches today and quite a productive day it was. The only frustration that I have at this time is that some of the sold work I cannot complete as I need a few references for these fells where the detail of the sktech will still be covered in snow. Consequently I am having to work a bit "out of order" on some of the fells. However, some sketches do in fact need the snow to be as near as possible to AW's depictions in the Pictorial guides like the example shown below of the crags on High Street.

This was painted today from a refernce I took last week on my Mardale Round. Unlike on the day that AW got his reference Blea Water is frozen over in my drawing. It just goes to show how consistently cold it has been for the last few weeks.