Bauhaus in the Yorkshire Wolds, a gigantic stack of bales.

 The Bale stack

A young student from Canada whom I had known as a child, was visiting and I remember, some time ago, we had talked about having a day out painting when he next visited. So today was a long overdue meeting. I took him for a drive into the secret Yorkshire Wolds exploring the dry valleys, looking at land art, visiting the famous Robert Fuller gallery as I explained aspects of the area such as the dew ponds project. We explored a field containing long wavy lines made from small ridges, emphasised by shadows. Top growth (haulms) had been removed leaving pallid stalks emerging from the tops of mini-ridges, these were potatoes waiting to be lifted. 

When asked what he wanted to paint he liked the notion of tall stacks of bales. This was a good choice, we could see as we drove, pale handkerchief fields confettied with bales, some round, others cuboid. We drove looking for stacks. Here and there we saw farmers hurriedly loading bales onto wagons, to be taken to yards nearby. We stopped at a field with small stacks and decided they were not quite tall enough at just 4 bales high, though as they clung to the rolling hillside they emphasised perspective and linearity. Driving towards home I knew of a stack that I had painted recently, which may still be there when suddenly we saw, in the distance, approaching Warter at Minningdale, a colossal stack. I had never seen anything like it. It was huge. It comprised large cuboid ( Heston ?) bales, each one being approximately 2.5m long and 1.2m square in section. The stack was eight bales high by at least 30 bales long, a bale wide. We quickly stopped and I set up an easel for him. He set about painting. I loved the way he mixed the paint. He was really observing. Here is his finished 14x10 inch canvas board painting. An amazingly refined work. I am impressed the range of subtle colours, the almost abstract impression. It is a lovely reminder of a day out painting, feeling the wind and hearing the sounds of nature, the smell of straw bales. This was produced using one of my portable pochade painting boxes. I have produced a book for artists which shows in detail, with paintings and prose, how to make your own. These are available from my online store.

Here is his finished 14x10 inch oil on canvas board painting. Please click image to see his wonderful use of colour

I decided to revisit and paint a larger canvas. However the wind was too strong to set up the French easel, so I worked by laying the canvas flat. People drove past behind me, on the busy road linking Warter and Huggate. The day was brighter than before which helped with defining shadows. I decided on a slightly different angle to include some dead umbels and nettles, as well as a nearby tree line. 

This painting was produced en plein air at the site. I limited my use of colour to the three primaries, specifically French Ultramarine, Lemon Yellow and Cadmium Red medium. I also used Titanium white. 

80x60cm oil on deep edge canvas stretched canvas

Available from my online store