I painted this picture of a ewe and her lamb during the winter of 2008/9 from a variety of photos and sketches. I sometimes tire of the same old still life, cobbled together on my kitchen table during the winter when it's not easy to get out and about with the paints. I prepare for this by collecting material during the spring and summer and I feel it is always time well spent. I used mostly Faber Castell Pastel Pencils which I find easier to work with as your hands stay a lot cleaner. For some of the larger areas, like the field, I use ordinary pastels from the Faber Castell range as these give a greater area of coverage than a pencil. The support is a sandy coloured Hahnemuhl Velour. This paper has a velvet finish and seems to hold a lot of pastel and can be over painted several times. Care needs to be taken with some of the harder pastel pencils as these can lift the flock if you try to press too hard. I like to keep drawing and painting during the winter as it enables me to "hit the ground running" so to speak once the spring arrives. This strategy eliminates those awful first attempts when I venture into the great outdoors at the end of March, which means I can be in the Black Bull in Coniston before dark.

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 Ultramarine) 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 Ultramarine) 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 certainly 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 experienced 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.

Litton Cross

I painted this view of Litton in two sessions on consecutive days. Both days were bright, warm and sunny and with the close proximity of one of my favourite pubs to enhance the experience I had a fantastic time painting outdoors. I've been a regular visitor to Litton over many years, mostly to The Red Lion which can be seen in the row of cottages just to the left of the stone cross. I always felt there was a painting here somewhere but could never quite see it. This all changed one bright February morning on a walk from Cressbrook to Tideswell, all the trees were bare, no leaves to blot out the view. Following a few sketches and photo sessions I now had all I needed to work out the best composition. I altered a few things like the roof line, reduced the number of trees on the green and "aged" the cottages a little ( I do wish people wouldn't renovate). It pays to visit places of interest at various seasons throughout the year as the changing light can completely alter the scene and change a dull composition into something worth painting. If you visit in the colder months there are no fewer than three log fires and at least three real ales in The Red Lion it would be very remiss of any painters worth their salt not to call in for refreshment.

Wakes week in Tideswell

As the title suggests, this watercolour painting was done during wakes week 2008, hence the bunting. This is the Well Dressing week which most Peak District villages have during summer where they celebrate the provision of water from a spring or well. If there were no springs or wells there would be no villages, so quite important. The painting was completed over several days, sitting quietly in the church grounds whenever the sun appeared. The centre of attention is the sun-dial atop the large stone pedestal, about six feet tip to toe. Telling the correct time involves a bit of agility because you have to climb on the pedestal to see the dial, ensuring that you don’t cast a shadow over it at the same time. The building on the right is Tindall’s the bakers, if you haven’t had a Tindall’s barm cake or pie you’ve never lived. As for pubs, well, I favour The Star on the High Street, you can usually get a pint of guest like Jennings and the Sunday lunches are excellent. One advantage of painting a sun-dial is that you’re unlikely to miss the pub closing time, provided the sun stays out of course.

Late Snow in Tideswell

This picture, drawn with graphite pencils on Bristol board is the scene for the 2008 Christmas card (church, shepherd, sheep, nativity, do try and stay with me!) It’s made up from several sources, the road is Church Lane which runs from Tideswell to Litton or Litton to Tideswell depending on whether you are going to The Red Lion or coming back. From a position adjacent to Cliffe House the great church tower is clearly visible above the dry-stone wall. The sheep in this picture are from the Lake District as black faced sheep are not common in this part of the Peak District. Counter change, darks against lights are an important aspect of any picture, particularly so in monochrome compositions such as this, hence the imported sheep. The dry-stone wall at the side is in situ but the one behind the flock is an enhanced version as I didn’t like the original. The trees are from a collection of sketches done in early October on the other side of Tideswell but look much better than the ones in situ. As for the shepherd, that’s me, photographed by my wife Rosemary.

The Barn at Brotherswater

This drawing on Bristol Board of an old barn near Brotherswater hangs proudly on the wall at Coronation Cottage in Tideswell. I never tire of looking at it because as I sit by the log fire and gaze up at it I can remember every minute of the wonderful time I spent in this tranquil backwater of the Lake District. I started it in May 2007 shortly after completing the Low Beckside drawing above but due to adverse weather, left the area with it unfinished. Disappointed, not in the slightest. As I drove away in the pouring rain I knew I would be back. It was late August 2008 when I returned, the area just as tranquil as the day I left. I took my position once again on a rocky knoll adjacent to the barn and settled down for an afternoon of bliss. A few fell walkers pass this way but other than that it’s just sheep and birdsong for company. Life doesn’t get much better than this and everything was just as I remembered it to be. Of course in true painterly and pinterly tradition the Brotherswater Arms is clearly visible from this location, enough said.

To the sheep page sheep?

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