Lake District Sketchbook 2017 Look Through

I’ve recently come back from a week in the Lake District. We go every year, but this time we went a little earlier in the season than we normally do. It was amazing to see how different the place I’ve come to know quite well, looks at this time of year. I kept a sketchbook like I did last year, but this time I took acrylic paints with me instead of watercolour. So much of my work is in acrylics that I thought it would make more sense to make art in a medium I was more comfortable and familiar with, because I hope to use these initial ideas to create more pieces.

This time I did more walking than I normally do and, although it was a bit more effort, I was able to take my paints up the mountain with me, which resulted in getting pictures of beautiful views from the tops that I wouldn’t have otherwise seen. That said, it was a little bit cold and windy on top, so I didn’t end up sitting and painting for as long as I hoped I would.

I had my main sketchbook with me, but I also took another notebook to use as a palette. I’ve always like how the card I use for my palettes looks after painting, sometimes even more than the paintings themselves, so I decided I wanted to keep a record of that this holiday.

It is a very different book from the one I did last year, which you can find here. That one I think was more about collecting ideas, whereas this time I wanted to do more actual paintings.

In the same vein as last week’s post, I ended up creating a series of paintings from sketches I made last year in the Lake District, based on dry stone walls, which you can see on Instagram, here.