This afternoon... sketching along the river

Returning from Birmingham with a diversion to the River Mease and back to the normal job... Due to the lack of rainfall the water in the river is a bit low but as the last time I was here it was in full flood, one shouldn't complain.

 Afternoon sun highlights on the stream... another month and there should be more green.

Riding into the afternoon light, well almost late afternoon by now

Heading towards sunset, sadly at this time of the year, non of this section of the river has the correct angle for a river and sunset combination.

This morning... Focus on Imaging at the NEC

A morning break from painting with a few hours spent with friends at the Focus on Imaging exhibition being held at the NEC, Birmingham. A great time 'playing' with all the new equipment etc as it's Europe's biggest annual imaging show, covering all manner of equipment, materials, framing, printing then there's demonstrations on computer software, studio flash lighting etc

 Heading for the Wacom stand....

then also the Canon stand... then onto the Eizo stand...

The bare shell of what will become almost £5000 worth of Canon camera but does a great job...

 One of the demos of lighting a figure... at the bottom is a video being shot with an ipad.

Latest oil painting... Dunnerdale, Cumbria

Detail from "Bright Warm Afternoon" Cumbria.
Oil. Alistair Butt © 2013 - #AB 021325

I spent some time alongside this river, it had a number of interesting view points and therefore possible painting... almost behind me is the small footbridge called Birks Bridge, in Dunnerdale, Cumbria where the River Duddon flows down a series of small waterfalls and is then forced through a narrow gap and over time has created some interesting rock formations - a Google search for 'Birks Bridge, Dunnerdale' or 'River Duddon' will show better than any text can. Either side of this area the river is wide and as can be seen in the above oil painting almost calm.

It was the afternoon light with the reflection of the sky on the water surface and the shadows cast from the trees that made me select this view point. I really enjoyed painting the clear water in the foreground, seeing the pebbles on the river bed and the reflected sky colour.

Report from the last few days... been to the Lake District again with stops in Yorkshire and Derbyshire on route.

What had be at first thought of as a day trip, started the morning of the day before, being great weather (the main reason for leaving sooner) and some hours on the way up exploring West Yorkshire and the North Yorkshire Dales:- Whafedale, Wensleydale and Swaledale (the top end) before heading via West Stonesdale (see Flickriver) and Tan Hill to meet the A66 and then on into Cumbria.

Some of the lying snow... still around on the higher areas from the snow a few weeks ago, not everyones' idea of 'beauty' but I really enjoy the landscape when there's snow around. The bottom image shows some of the snow drift patterns created by the wind and the snow drift was still over 30cm/1ft deep on the road that I was standing on and the wall is about 240cm/6ft high.

The one day trip, having already be extended, continued as I ended up staying two nights in Cumbria. The two images shown above are from the Lake District, top one is in Patterdale, one of the many becks (local name for stream) that flow into Ullswater. The bottom picture is of the River Duddon as it  flows through Dunnerdale starting at Wrynoss Pass and ending in the sea just north of Barrow-in-Furness. A less visited valley, compaired to others but no less attractive...

This was one of the stops on the return trip, on the Derbyshire/Yorkshire border and in this case a location I have visited and painted many times in both watercolour and oil. Some sections of the stream were still frozen and created some interesting moments while sliding across, much safer that trying to jump and not knowing what the landing surface would be like... the water in these streams has a brown tint which comes from the peat that covers the surrounding Moors - a contrast to the clear becks of the Lake District.

Now back in the studio for one day then out again...