The main challenge to overcome when painting outdoors is most definitely the weather, especially so in the Lake District. I was fortunate to have two clear days of bright sunshine when I painted Wallend farm but still needed a session at home painting in more familiar surroundings to complete something acceptable. One problem I had was the composition, when the farm was viewed from the most pleasing direction the distant hills were not in view. When the hills were in view, the farm looked a bit flat, so with a large slice of artistic license I moved the farm around to accommodate the hills. Would it still look like the original scene I can hear you ask. The answer is a qualified yes, because I had this painting on my laptop as a screen saver and whilst working in Scotland someone familiar with the area asked "is that Great Langdale". Even painting in glorious sunshine outdoors is not without its challenges, things move like sheep for instance, clouds appear and alter the shadows. The only way to overcome them is to be patient, painting is supposed to be a relaxing hobby. The shadows will clear and, certainly in the Lake District another sheep or two will always wander onto the stage at some time. One good tip I can give you, always paint within easy walking distance of a good pub or better still, paint the pub.

I painted this plate of mince pies, provided courtesy of my mother-in law Maureen for a Christmas card one year. The challenge, or so I thought was going to be painting convincing looking pastry and although it proved to be a challenge it was nothing compared to painting the tablecloth. A gingham tablecloth is an exercise in perspective and after many attempts decided that it was good enough and moved on to paint the pies. The blue lines that make up the tablecloth start out bold and fat in the foreground and get thinner and lose tone as they move away. They have to stay parallel to each other whilst appearing to converge in the distance to a vanishing point and also take on any folds and ridges in the cloth (the first couple of attempts could have been titled "mince pies on a blue chess board"). The plate and the pies were easy by comparison but it's the shadows that tie the whole thing together and anchor the plate to the tablecloth. A tip here would be, if you can't paint near a pub, paint near a plate of mince pies.

Birks Bridge is a wonderfully peaceful place to paint in Dunnerdale, the very minor road that traverses the river Duddon at this point is only used by local traffic. I usually sketch a scene first to get some idea of composition and work out where the dark and light tones will be. I try to have lots of lights against darks in my paintings, which add interest and depth to the composition. I never got round to painting the scene, I think I may have been daunted by all the rocks, but I kept the sketch, you never know when you may go back and paint it. Another challenge was it didn’t have a very high “good proximity to a decent pub” rating, the nearest being in Torver. A good tip when painting in remote places is to take your digital camera. No matter how good your camera it will never be a substitute for painting outdoors but a couple of good photo’s and a half decent sketch can be used to create an acceptable work back in the comforts of home.

This painting of my old junior school in its centenary year was painted from a photograph taken at the queens road entrance. I couldn’t bring myself to sit outside the school and paint, sitting out in the wilds of Cumbria is a very enjoyable way to spend ones leisure time but the urban landscape doesn’t have the same appeal. Several challenges prevail when painting buildings, the significant two in my opinion are perspective and brickwork. Getting the perspective correct involves a high degree of observation and a little knowledge of vanishing points. I think I’ve almost got it right in this picture but there are one or two points that my critical eye is drawn too that don’t quite look right. Brickwork has to be rendered in a believable manner without painting each individual brick. I try to get the colour right first, not by mixing the correct colour in the pallet and then brushing it on but mixing all the colours I think I may need (Light Red, Alizarin Crimson and French Ultra Marine) in light washes and applying them in several glazes until the correct brick colour is achieved. The next stage is to add some texture to these flat washes (mix of Light Red and French Ultra Marine) and then adding a little detail here and there to represent individual bricks. The shadows are painted in last of all and give the whole building its three dimensional look. A tip for this one would be to repeat that old show business maxim “never work with kids or animals”, take a photo and get out of there as quick as possible.

I painted this from two sources, the landscape came from a magazine and the figure from the Daily Telegraph during a postal strike. The image was used for a Christmas card in 2003 when I left it a bit late to go out and find a proper scene to paint. Lots of detail on the Postman and plenty of light against dark in the middleground with lighter tone in the background give a sense of distance. I like this painting for one reason, I just sat down with a simple sketch and painted it without any mistakes, no bin full of cast-offs. I prefer to paint outside in the landscape but you don't have to go out into the freezing cold to paint a snow scene.

Fly Fishing Bag

This old fly-fishing bag, not the exact one used by J R Hartley but certainley very similar was painted whilst on a painting holiday in Somerset. Our host setup this still life for us, and also demonstrated how to paint some of the more difficult bits like the buckles and how to mix a realistic looking colour for the old weathered canvas. Having someone around to turn to for guidance is a great benefit whilst painting and being given a scene to paint rather than choosing your own gets you out of your comfort zone, which helps you improve. Painting in a group of similarly experience painters is very enjoyable too, just having people to bounce ideas off is a great way of learning. The tip he gave us at the beginning of the excercise was to make sure the strap was completeley straight as it hangs from the wall, any slight curve would make the bag look as if it were floating. Some of the other students didn't heed this warning and produced some very nice canvas balloons.

Great Longstone

This is a painting produced entirely on location in the village of Great Longstone over a long weekend. The weather was perfect from the start about midday on Friday until I left on Sunday, early evening. A few difficulty factors were encountered, not least the presence of an art exhibition at the local village hall. The place was awash with artists and art lovers all weekend, not for the faint hearted. The other problem was the test match against Pakistan to distract me, but what better way to spend one's leisure time than sitting in the warm sunshine in a beautiful Peak District village painting and listening to the cricket, perfect. One other slight difficulty was the rather dated opening hours of the two local pubs. You probably know the score, you sit there dreaming of a pint of raw sienna coloured bitter with a creamy white gouache head and say to yourself "I'll just finish this last wash of French Ultramarine and Burnt Umber and then go for a pint" only to find the landlord's gone for a siesta. Undeterred, I packed up and set off for home via the Monsal Head Hotel, still open, serving a most delectable pint of Hartington Bitter, brewed just up the road. Don't worry about people coming over to gawp at your painting, ask them what time the pub closes..

Low Beckside

I spent best part of a cloudy Cumbrian day sitting quietly with my sketchbook and pencil in the small hamlet of Hartsop, tucked away in the Brotherswater valley. I chatted to a couple of locals as they herded their sheep along the narrow lane that winds its way through one of the most picturesque and unspoilt places in the Lake District. Apart from the proliferation of songbirds and the gentle sound of Hartsop beck meandering its way down to Brotherswater that was about it as regards contact with the outside world. As it wasn’t a particularly sunny day painting was a non-starter but it’s amazing what you can produce with just pencil and paper even in poor light. The trick is to invent your own shadows to give the sketch the illusion of three dimensions, but you need to be consistent. I usually mark an arrow in one corner of the paper to remind me which way the sun would have been shining had I gone anywhere else other than the Lake District. Of course, there’s no pub in Hartsop but just up the road at The Brotherswater Inn they were serving Hawkshead Gold and Tirril’s Old Faithful, what better way to round off a day in the lakes.

To the sheep page sheep?

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Thanks for visiting


All comments, questions and/or constructive criticism to brian.smalley@brocade.com or ascii65@hotmail.com