Another very warm day.
( click this YouTube link for music - (Vaughan Williams ~ The Lark Ascending )- to accompany the picture...................thanks to Maria V G for suggesting this. I have tried it, playing the music as I look at the picture. It seems appropriate to give ourselves time to reflect especially at this time of Covid apprehension. It is an idea for future posts I think. )
I walked George at South Dalton en route for Thixendale. I thought I may have a try at painting the view across the horse paddock at Thixendale Gritts. I arrived and looked over the view, I am still undecided, I think it will wait until autumn or even winter, if at all! Onto Robert Fuller's studio for an ad hoc visit found me talking to the gallery manager.We chatted about the latest measures ( Covid 19 ) and how they applied to the gallery. Though modest it is classed in the museum, art galleries grouping and requires all visitors from midnight last night, to wear a mask inside. He was expecting some visitors who had booked in about ten minutes. For those of you who would like to visit, please go to Robert's site here to book a slot. Each slot is fifty minutes, with a ten minutes deep cleaning window making appointments on the hour.
I motored off to Painsthorpe Dale. It was on my list to paint. It is the most dramatic of Dales, very steep hillsides converge to create a small, shortish dale head where sheep confetti the lush pasture far below. It is also rather difficult to paint. That is, it is hard to find a position to reflect the height above the grazing sheep and also the distant landscape in such a way as to describe the whole 'feel' of the place. Today, it was dangerously hot as well and this meant I was limited, I needed a shady spot for George to lie down. This proved to be below an ancient hawthorn adjacent to a boundary fence. The grass was deep, wet and cool and a breeze ruffled his coat. I set up intending to be very quick, started painting loosely and then realised the sun had moved round and was hitting George. This would'nt do, so I packed up, gave George a whole bottle of water and then we both returned to the car. The picture is complete enough I think, not overworked and was worth doing. The grassland here was notably full of blue harebells, but also colonies of small yellow hawkweed with purplish thistles spread out everywhere. I saw the nearby farm on the hillside which gives some sense of scale and the distant suggestion of Kirby Underdale making the picture a useful reference. Painsthorpe cannot be seen as it is below me, just over the rim of grasses, the wooded Dale heading towards Kirby Underdale is Scotten Dale, the wood being Admiral Plantation.
A large ball by the side of the road
Unfolds becoming a hare,
Long black tipped ears,
Sky pointing, it
Tracks away.
Later,
A black tailed stoat
Urgently,
Nervously,
Optimistically
crosses the hot tarmac road, on
Dancing feet.
12 x 10 inch,
oil on canvas board,
Available
Please email for details.
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