A week in the Lakes…
Derwent Water & Catbells. Oil on Board. 61cm x 30cm
I have always loved the outdoors, cycling, walking or just pottering about. The painting trips last year to complete my graduation project at Uni were fantastic so when an opportunity to go and spend a full week in the Lakes came up in January I jumped at the chance.
…sometimes the sun comes out but not very often!
So I packed up the car with sketch books, French Easel and of course my bike and headed up the A1. I was staying at the brilliant Keswick Youth Hostel on the river, the perfect self catering option for a week of creativity.
It’s fair to say the weather was mixed! Well to be honest it was very wet with one or two good days. I found myself sat in the car looking out at the landscape working on mixed media reference sketches to power future studio paintings. I mastered the art of balancing a jar of water and a set of watercolours in the central counsole whilst focusing on the cloudy fells outside, occasionally flicking the windscreen wipers to clear the view.
…Newlands Valley from the car…
I had one really good day down on Derwent Water shores and completed a full on plein air landscape of the lake and fells of Borrowdale. A great day with hoardes of walkers chatting as they went by. A great experience.
I got into a good rhythm of creative stuff during the day and a bike ride late afternoon, despite some biblical rain and storm force winds I revisited all my favourite routes and sussed out new painting locations en route.
All in all a great week, loads of work completed and I proved to myself that despite the weather there is always a view to sketch or a road to ride.
Back in the studio I have produced 3 more large pieces to complete a series of 4 Lakes paintings that tell a very personal story of my Lakes experience. I am hoping to exhibit them in Keswick, somewhere, I just need to get the frames made!
Newlands Valley. Oil on Board. 61cm x 30cm
The Road Along Crummock Water. Oil on Board. 61cm x 30cm
Hopefully I will be back for a week in the summer for more cycling/painting action.
