Trough of Bowland Farm lands England.

I visited Roeburndale for a second time in a month. This time I took a long walk around its full circuit. In the early spring evening I watched the shadows chasing the sun acrosss the expance of the valley whilst the lambs cried. Ted Hughes asked, who can withstand that cry, not the shadows for they ran across the valley chasing the sun.

70 x 70 cm
Acrylic on Canvas

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Light dances across the valley floor as sun and frost go head to head in Roeburndale. A hot February day in 2008 you could almost see a slice of misted air hovering and shimmering above the ice cold ground.

60 x 60cm
acrylic on canvas

The Road to Chapel Haylot to Winder 20 x 20 inches Acrylic on Canvas

Barn and tractor, The colours of the sunset were refracted from the ground and hovered in the air; captured in the multiple lenses of frost drops; a moments image fractured then sparkles.

60 x 60 cm
acrylic on canvas

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Pentacost

60 x 60 cm

All this area is noted as a wildlife hotspot. seehttp://www.bowlandwildlife.org.uk/bowland_wildlife_hot_spots.php

I first encountered Roeburndale as I walked from Slaidburn to Caton over the fells of the Bowland Forest. I thought Roeburndale was a wet place with splendid views of the Yorkshire dales. My second visit years later was much more magical. On a hot late winters day I encountered a valley of great peace.

I spent the entire day and another two more besides, exploring here and there, painting and sketching as I went meeting no one but very clean sheep, crows and the occasional sight of a fox or buzzard. However, on the fourth day I met and had a number of conversations with some local cloth capped shepherds and farmers all of which took place weirdly in the middle of high pastures. Removed from sight of any dwellings we sheltered by the lee of a wall from sudden showers which scudded across the valley. The showers went thundering off to Yorkshire leaving brilliant blue skies and rainbows in their wake. Through discussion these very rural people recounted some stories of their life’s in the valley, the ministry of the chapel, their vocation to their God, the marriage of their parents in the different farmsteads, and some great stories of sheep. They had real humour, character and Christian faith. In my mind I could see these old guys working hard, caring for their land through wind and rain for the last 60 years or more. All this humbled under their Gods sky across the wide open valley. The annual cycle a reminder of mans fallibility. It was this and the whole Roeburndale experience that set me on a train of thought so I began painting a series on Roeburndale landscapes in Winter followed by Easter Sunday, Whitsuntide and Pentecost.