two paintings of the Ribble Valley Rob Miller FRSA

Autumn Ribble,  Pendle viewed from Whalley Nab
50x50cm, Acrylics

Winter Ribble at Sawley, 70x50cm, Acylics

I spent some hours in the studio today  revisiting two works that I dug out from under one of my work tables, the search and change mission was initiated by two oil paintings that  I am working on in the studio, one of Longridge Fell and  the other of Pendle  both viewed from the same spot. I'm trying to capture in both of them, one early spring and the other in mid winter what I call the bright, which is a shifting light as opposed to focussing on a scenes contrast;  

I started  the above works in acrylic,  Autumn Ribble & Pendle, and Winter Ribble at Sawley shortly after I returned from Spain in 2010  as part of a series;  though many of the Ribble Valley paintings in the series found new homes and the two above were popular  I was never happy with them,  so I put them aside,  my issue was that ; by not focusing on contrast and maybe due to poor light in which to paint I had  developed an over dependency  on primary and complimentary colour, which did not do well  when I tried to capture and depict the softer northern tones;  (though the same colours worked wonderfully in summer time and in the Cotswolds spring and Andalusian winter );  Now some years later  after todays efforts the works are informed by split complimentary colours and  a range of tonality created  by a juxtaposition of  earth and mineral based colours. So now I think I have the soft northern tones as well as the bright of sun glimmer  across the Ribbles waters and the flickering rays that however fleetingly make play in the darker lanes in and above the Valley. So, there you are! Voilà monsieur .