Towards Ingleborough by Barbara Place

Barbara - this is superb!! Did you work from a sketch or do it directly from the view? The complexity of texture, tones and drawing are so beautifully balanced. Do you use charcoal for the drawn lines? The use of that area of red is very daring, but it gives such impact against the blue - some hoe that more subtle shades of the same colour balance it out. I see so few really original pieces like this - very well done, please do more!!!!

Thank you Clive, I am pleased that you like this painting, it is the first painting that I have ever wanted to keep myself. In many years,I am always looking to my next painting. I actually did sketches, and a small "prototype" in situ, its a fabulous place that so few people visit, No charcoal, but the suggestion of telegraph poles which I felt should be there, are just watercolour added with a rigger. The large painting was done in the studio . Do you know the place ? So worth a visit. The weather changes more than anywhere else on earth..

Thanks for replying - I have just looked up Forest of Bowland, the nearest I have been to that area is Ilkley across the county! I can quite understand why you want to keep that painting - I have a couple of canvases that I feel I have established

Sorry - I did not mean to end there! to carry on ( a little) ... a benchmark and a point of reference, and I think it important to be able to refer back sometimes when doing new work. I have started lately to intregrate the drawing of my landscapes into the painting of them - I find I can do this using charcoal line work which I seal with fixer and then paint over, if you use a rigger brush you must presumably draw with it ontop of the painitng to create rough boundaries? I would be really interested to know how you get those 'lost and found' lines.

Hi Clive, in answer to your last question, the lost and found appear because there is so much texture on the support. Charcoal could work too, especially as you say then fixing it.