We had a productive and enjoyable weekend in The Lakes.
We made sure we were up at sparrow fart and after a quick walk for Lunas ablutions we set off with a loaded car full of 20 paintings.
We arrived at Beckstones Gallery shortly before they opened at 10am. They were very happy with my large paintings as they were more like the original ones I submitted to them. My recent series of “Lake” paintings have not sold as well as my more contemporary ones. Niki, one of the owners, believes it is because there is too much competition for “Lake” paintings in the gallery. My new paintings of farms and mountains have done well in the past. I was delighted that they also loved my new small acrylic paintings done in the style of my watercolours. They loved the “patchwork” effect and thought they would compliment the 6 watercolours I had also taken. They gave me one large painting and 2 small ones back which was a result. Feeling relieved we headed off to Ambleside on my favourite drive from Keswick. It was a very moody drive with low cloud across the fells and in the valleys.
We managed to get parked in the Salutation Hotel car park next to The Old Courthouse Gallery. I knew we would be taking more paintings back from there as they had requested a complete swap. I had decided to give OCG the large painting from Beckstones as well as the large painting of Borrowdale and the 6 smaller, framed oils. We delivered them successfully and agreed to pick the 7 returns up on the Sunday morning.
After a bite for lunch and a walk for Luna we headed for the pub. We intended to watch the rugby but ended up enjoying the fresh air and drinks and missed the first game. We’ve done this before and part of it is the relief (for me) off delivering new work to my 2 Lake District Galleries. We get a bit de-mob happy!
We later retired to our hotel room which we found to our surprise had a balcony. We watched a bit of rugby on the TV and decided to eat our evening meal in the hotel, something we don’t normally do but we didn’t really want to go out again and the food wasn’t that much more expensive than the pub grub. We could also leave Luna in the room and eat in peace.
As we walked down to the restaurant, I perused the artwork on the walls, something I always do in hotels. The hotel walls were full of Heaton Cooper prints but also many prints of work by an artist I know well from my many visits to The Lakes, Geoffrey Cowton. He does landscapes and buildings drawn in a very fine pen with subtle watercolour washes.
I used to have a print of his of Blea Tarn cottages and The Langdale Pikes.
I googled him and found him to be alive and well. He was born in Bradford and developed a love of the Yorkshire Dales the Lakes and Pennines. He trained as an art teacher at St John’s College York and later studied print making at Leeds College of Art. He taught art for a number of years before setting up Glendale Studios in Halifax with his wife. His son now runs the extensive digital print studio producing prints of his work and that of other artists.
His distinctive style is on show everywhere in The Lakes. I remember trying to emulate his fine pen and wash style but was found lacking. I do like his work especially his ability to produce the detailed slate built walls of many of the Lakeland buildings. On a whim over the meal I bought one of his books “With a pencil in my Rusksack” which has arrived and looks an interesting read (for me).
On Sunday morning, after a walk with Luna in the lovely park in the centre of Ambleside which, as far as I recollect, I have never been to in my 40 odd years of visiting The Lakes, and collecting the returns from OCG , I did a bit of shopping whilst Natasha had an hour in the hotel spa. We observed the Remembrance Sunday Service from our balcony before setting off retracing our steps back to Keswick and home taking in a trip to the Rheged centre on the way where we got a drink and briefly visited an exhibition of Lakeland photography.
On Monday I decided it was time to tackle the chaos of my studio. I spent the morning sorting stuff out to a stage where I can now move around and would feel more comfortable working. I had unloaded 20 paintings over the weekend and brought 8 back. The party shed has many less paintings in it after my trip to Tallantyre the other week and now my studio was in a manageable state. I am feeling less stressed and frustrated already. I also photographed and catalogued a group of 20cmx20cm seascapes ready to put them up for sale on Facebook and Instagram as handy little Christmas gifts.
I also posted my commission painting off to the client who on Tuesday messaged me to say it had arrived safely and she loved it - always a relief. She said she had sent me a cheque which although not ideal I’m OK with but I became slightly concerned that she had put the wrong number house on the envelope (I had given her my address)! It was addressed to no. 3 our neighbours house who moved a month ago. Fortunately our postie recognised my name and I got it on Thursday. Phew!!!
On Tuesday, now having the space, I mounted several watercolours. Some previously done for Jetty Gallery and some larger ones for the hell of it!
On Wednesday I used my tray frames which I had bought for the Lake District oil paintings and decided not to use, and framed 6 oil paintings I did a while ago of Scottish mountains with the intention of sending them to Watson Gallery in Edinburgh. They did look good but Bob at Watson Gallery has a lot of unsold work of mine and I need to talk to him before I send anymore.
Natasha was working in Morpeth on Wednesday and kindly dropped off my 4 Croft paintings at Tallantyre Gallery. Later Jackie the Gallery Manager rang me to tell me she loved them and that they had sold the very large Croft painting I had based these smaller ones on. When we visited the other week she did tell me it was a banker and has been proved right. That’s a handy lump of money for Christmas.
I have had my printed Christmas cards for a while now so on Wednesday afternoon with a couple of hours to spare, I wrote and addressed most of our list. That’s another job on my list ticked off!
I now had 5 mounted and cello wrapped watercolours for Jetty Gallery so on Thursday I decided to do a few more ready to mount and send as my last lot of the year.
It’s been another busy and varied week and I feel tired writing about it, however, we’ve got my son Tom and his family up in Craster this weekend and he has provided me with a comprehensive agenda. Dylan is also back from Manchester for the weekend so we’ll not be chilling anytime soon!