Walking, drawing and painting, Wales and Scotland.

I’m so lucky to have many times this year to go away on walking holidays or trips with friends. I have spent a week in Coniston and the beautiful Llyn peninsular and two weeks at different times in the stunning Glen Coe area, Scotland.

It gives me the unique opportunity to draw and paint which I do anywhere I go, even short walks around the local area. Drawing and painting in its simple form of quickly recording the shapes, colours and forms observed, that delight the eye and give a puzzle for the brain to sort give me immense pleasure and stimulation.

The weather is of course always tricky, particularly in Scotland and sure enough this year has seen a heat wave and continual rain on different weeks. Drawing and painting continues throughout even in different forms such as just a quick pen or watercolour pencil drawing. Not great but satisfying to have captured something in the heat or saturation.

The lovely coast of Wales provided much opportunity to sketch and paint while walking as well as visiting many interesting historical sight. Wales is particularly close to my heart being mainly brought up there and familiar with the landscape but still so much to observe and explore on the coastal side.  

Most small watercolour painting and sketches are only the size of an A6 sheet (105 x 148mm), sometime doubled up, as in the two sketches above. The sketchbooks have to fit into a pocket in my trousers along with a simple case small case of pencils. The tiny watercolour box usually carried in my rucksack and miniature bottle of water in my pocket provide quick and easy access as there is never enough time stop and sketch for me!

I am now so very slow at walking and only managed two Munros (mountains over 3000ft) on my most recent trip to Glen Coe, in the gap between rainy days. Even then I cheated by using the ski lift part way up.

There are so many wonderful walks in Scotland and particularly Glen Coe. Looking across and down on Loch Linnhe is one of my favourites. This long sparkling historic waterway always provides much inspiration, whatever the weather.

Many of these pictures will just sit in my sketch books and may be converted into hand coloured lino prints. Maybe one day I will turn to painting bigger pictures in oils or acrylics. The enjoyment I gain from tramping about the hillsides and stopping to create a quick memory or sketch is immeasurable.

My next trip is farther afield, so hopefully will be back with some very different paintings and sketches.

Mill Town Arts Exhibition at the Town Hall, Hebden Bridge.

I am taking part in the Mill Town Arts Exhibition at the Town Hall from 11^th January until the 7^th February. This is a collective exhibition of some of the Mill Town artists with exciting and diverse work.

The two, fairly large pieces of work, of mine are on the same Shop Window Reflection theme that I have been pursuing for many years. They are both different in execution one being a pencil drawing on cartridge paper and the other a watercolour, both with a slight sense of humour.

One is of a long gone Hebden Bridge Opticians shop window, on Albert Street, where the images of some aspects of the reflection become slightly blurry and has a little double vision in the street name and other aspects, appropriate for an opticians. A plants obscures the Opticians name making it difficult to see and recognise the shop. It is a moment captured in time, things have moved on and changed. The shop is now a barbers.

The other is a diving Shop called ‘Below the Surface’ in Hebden Bridge reflecting a market day, where the shop display yields fish swimming across the reflected hill side and sub aqua divers swimming across the street. Underwater, again appropriate for Hebden Bridge, can be seen a muddle of coral, a person crossing, yellow traffic lines, stones, crabs and myself, watching and photographing this specticle.

Both pictures are from the outside of the shop looking in.

Mill Town Arts is a diverse collective of artists and creatives working in and out of the Calder valley. They organise a range of ‘not for profit’ events and exhibitions throughout the year.

• Mill Town Arts Instagram
• Mill Town Arts Facebook

Peat Appreciation Society Exhibition

At the moment I am exhibiting in a group exhibition of the Peat Appreciation Society (PAS), in Gibson Mill. This runs from January 23rd until April 26th. Up till March 28th Gibson Mill is open from Friday until Sunday from 10am until 3pm. After that time it will be open 7 days a week from 10am until 4pm.

Peat Appreciation Society (PAS) is an art centred collective which aims to raise awareness and celebrate Peat. It joins together critically engaged creative people for open ended discussions and collaboration. It aims to deepen and share the knowledge and skill of their creative processes and aims for excellence within their practice.

PAS showcases work together and promotes the value of peat as a unique and highly valuable biodiverse habitat, an immense carbon store and a natural flood defence. It celebrates the natural, cultural and archeological heritage of peatlands in the UpperCalder Valley – a community within the Great North Bog.

My oil paintings for this exhibition are based on watercolour paintings I made in-situ at Ogden Water and in Kerry, Ireland. The superb reflections, of artists, on that bright day inspired a painting.  A group of us gathered to examine the created Bunds and plant Sphagnum Moss. It hopefully records a bit of time important to us all.

The sad scene of the peat cuttings amongst the beautiful Kerry Hills in Ireland also gave me the inspiration to create a picture. This along with the healthy regeneration of the Sphagnum in the ditches gave another reason to paint these pictures.