Painting my way through England

Today was a rather ambling around day in more ways than one.  First, I found the laundrette in Windermere to do my laundry.  Then the post office where I mailed some packages home.  Then I drove up to the charming little town of Ambleside, where I did a watercolor sketch of the Old Bridge House.  Just two tiny rooms, one on top of the other, perched on a bridge over the creek, I'm not sure anyone ever actually lived in it, but it sure is charming!


Yesterday, I painted Tarn Hows on my afternoon walk around the lake.


I also did a lot of quick sketches while visiting Hilltop.  Just a collection of things that caught my eye, things I wanted to remember.


There was a tiny watercolor, maybe 8 x 10 inches at the largest, probably smaller on one of the walls in an upstairs room.  How I'd love to have a print of it.  The brushwork in that little watercolor was just amazing!  And the light it captured was wonderful!  I was a good girl and didn't dig out my camera per the request for no photos in the house, but Oh!  How desperately I wanted one of that painting!  I also loved the quilt on her bed.  Thankfully there was a postcard of that!


Some of the sketches are just rough pencil impressions of things I saw.  Not precise by any means, just a way for me to remember, like the metal horse-shoe type pieces on the bottom of the clogs!


A very quick study of the front room's fireplace wall.  It's a bit out of proportion, but again, it's just an impression more than anything.  There is a terrific book, still in print about her house:At Home with Beatrix Potter: The Creator of Peter Rabbit   It has wonderful photos and commentary of the house.


When I went to Wray Castle a few days ago, I sat and painted the view from the cafe window at the castle.  Then a day or two later, I got to drive right up near these peaks on the way to Wrynose and Hardknott passes.


While waiting to go into dinner, I sketched this lovely scene in Beeley and then finished it later on.


I posted some of this before, but I went back and added to the page.


While I'd love to paint everywhere I visit, there often simply isn't time.  Or it's raining.  Or too many people, or sometimes, there is no place to sit.  Occasionally, I'll do a pencil sketch and then take a photo, and finish the painting later, as I did of the Beeley scene.  Once in a great while, I'll go back and do a sketch from a photo, like I did with these of Tintagel ~ but that doesn't happen very often. I find I really like to get my own impression down, and photos, much as I like them, always result in a different perspective.

But enough of painting ~ here are a few photos from my day!


Here is a photo of the old bridge house in Ambleside.  I like the way they built the stairs outside of the room to save interior space!


There are gorgeous views all over Ambleside!  This scene is just across the street from the Old Bridge House.


The main reason I went to Ambleside was to visit the Armitt Library and see their collection Beatrix Potter's naturalist watercolors, especially her fungi paintings!  These for the most part were much larger than the little book illustration, but the brushwork in them was ever so find and detailed.  If you look at the large size of this on Flickr (just click on the photo)  you can see the super teensy brush strokes on the stems of these mushrooms.  Amazing!

If you are wondering why I'm such a big Beatrix Potter fan, it is in part because I taught myself to paint in watercolors by copying her illustrations as a girl!  But looking at these intricate watercolors in person, I realize what a very long way I have to go and how much more there is to learn still!  She was a true master of the medium.


And I love her whimsy too ~ like these illustrations from her painting book for children and the wonderful instructions to go with!