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.