EDGES, ESCAPE AND BOUNDARIES
I thought my title might grab your attention in these strange times of lockdown-unlockdown!
Boundaries, borders, rules, edges…
Ironically, my latest paintings are all about being at the boundary; being at the edge. And although all our lockdown rules and boundaries must of course be followed strictly and carefully, I love the idea of escape too. Maybe escape in our minds.
The glorious upper dales I have been painting are right at the North-Western edge of the YDNP, upper tributaries of Swaledale: Birkdale, Great Sleddale, Little Sleddale, Whitsundale….
The latter is more widely known as the location of Ravenseat Farm where the Yorkshire Shepherdess and her family live and work, which got me thinking when I explored the area. I needed a way of depicting life here as really remote: it’s about being on the edge of things – a way of life on the edge of normality - a type of escape.
A remote barn above Ravenseat Farm offered me the solution: alone and high up amongst these glorious contours, overlooking a few fields. I devised the composition to allow for some daring: yes, even the clouds are escaping from their normal place!
below: ESCAPE: Whitsundale
I loved working to this small size for a change, and I love the long landscape shape – so I decided to use this same size and shape to unite my depictions of this group of Upper Swaledale tributaries. The group of paintings therefore hangs together well, echoing their close proximity in reality.
And so the paintings of Great and Little Sleddale (less than a mile or so from Whitsundale) quickly followed…
above: MORE WEATHER (Little Sleddale is that dip on the right!)
below: ELEMENTAL (Great Sleddale)
Walking is essential to explore these – there are no roads here! What fabulous places to experience: remote and beautiful, with just the sheep and weather for company.
But the final one of this little-known group of Dales, Birkdale, can be seen from a road – the one solitary road in the area – and it’s the road that, within a mile or two, takes you over the boundary of the National Park and into Cumbria!
And so painting Birkdale really needed to be about boundaries… I chose an isolated farmhouse which sits next to the road, heightening its solitude by slightly simplifying the huge lines of the surrounding moors…. I think it worked: BOUNDARIES.
But then I stopped and thought some more. If this is all about boundaries, how about I push my own…?
Maybe I could paint it a second time; now using a watercolour underpainted surface which could be allowed to SHOW THROUGH the pastel layer. A breaking of boundaries in a painting all about boundaries…
Merging the two media is a tricky process – I wanted the edges between the watercolour and the pastel to be present, but not too distinct.
I hope I achieved it: BOUNDARIES II.
A final conundrum remains. The boundaries of the YDNP were extended in 2016, and now several large valleys in Cumbria and Lancashire are within the park.
Local dialect means that these are not actually called ‘Dale’; but they are significant and beautiful, and so I have added them onto my Quest list! Watch out for Eden Valley, Mallerstang, Lune Valley and Rawthey Valley….
As the lockdown boundaries ease I think we’re all looking forward to going exploring again…..I’ll be getting my boots on very soon!