PASTEL DRAWINGS

These pastel drawings are the result of many walks in the High Peak area around New Mills, Hayfield and Kinder Scout. I make sketches and take photos whilst walking and then work up my favourite scenes when I get home.
Currently using a variety of soft pastels including Conte, Rowney and Unison.

Brook Bottom, Easter 2011

Conte on sugar paper

This is a view of Brook Bottom looking back into the valley behind the church. It was very sunny this Easter and the trees are all coming into leaf with bright acid green and soft gold.
I noticed this most untidy dry stone wall with its mix of natural and worked stones showing that it has been repaired many times in its lifetime.

 Brook Bottom, detail.

Logs, Eggs and Potatoes

New Mills, Winter

A much tidier wall this, beautifully sweeping into a farm drive. There had been a very hard frost through the night and everything was as if dusted with icing sugar.

 A detail.

A view towards Kinder in the mist

Soft pastels on Pastel paper.

I have been true to the colours that I saw, I know that is hard to believe. Whilst looking out of the window towards Kinder the mist was rolling down from the mountainside over the farmland towards New Mills. The sunset illuminated the scene casting this amazing golden glow over everything. It was magical and lasted until the sun went down.

An Old Gate, New Mills

Pastel paper and Conte.

This disused gate caught my attention as it is quite high up on a bank leaving it quite inaccessable with brambles and grasses. The roads around have been deeply worn down by cattle as they were traditionally drovers routes. It was October at the time, one of those bright autumn days that still feel a bit like summer.

These drawings have all been done over July and August 2011 and they are something that I am currently working on. I am really enjoying working with the pastel medium as it allows for a variety of ways of working.

More horses

These hardy ponies and horses all have different characters. I like the way they keep one ear pointed forward and one is angled back to check on what the other ponies are doing behind.

 I have been using Fabriano Artico paper which has a warmer tone and drawing inks that can give a range of tones and washes.

The horses are not stabled or regularly groomed and stay out in the field all day so their manes are unkempt and long, this creates a challenge for the drawing.

I have experimented with the inks onto a manilla parcel paper. It crinkles a bit as it is very absorbant but I quite like the effect of the brown tones. I have added some highlights with white acrylic.