During February of this year I took a long weekend in the Lake district, explore this wonderful landscape with me though a series of watercolour paintings and sketches. From dramatic mountains, Roman forts, expansive lakes, violent waterfalls and quiet valleys.
Visiting the lake district in late winter the land had a certain mystical quality, far from major roads and cities the hills and valleys lie silent. The mountain peaks are obscured by a thick slow creeping fog. One infers the hills surrounding the valley must continue indefinitely towards the sky. Here one feels small in a landscape that remains stagnant yet continuously moldable, a contradiction of finality and the nebulousness of life.
Above depicts a scene along the River Esk, near the base of Hardknotts pass. We could see the river from the ruins of a Roman fort at the top of Hard Knotts pass and wandered down the steep road to this beautiful spot. The river was ideal for wild swimming although recent rainfall meant only certain areas along the river were safe to swim in. The vastness of the land uninterrupted by human life was overwhelmingly apparent, we saw no other person all day, a rare find in England.
This watercolour painting depicts a scene looking up at the mountains of Hardknotts pass from the point of view of the Roman fortification. The fort is situated in a dramatic orange, red bracken filled landscape. The fort was built under the early stages of Hadrian's rule in the 2nd century. The location was chosen as the fort could guard an important road that connected the Cumbrian coast with the heart of the Lake District. It was one of three forts along this line, between Ravenglass and Ambleside.
The square shaped fort has some of the best preserved fort walls in Britain, the exterior walls currently stand at a height of 2 metres. The fort has a central entrance along each wall and towers at each corner. There is little remaining evidence of buildings inside the fort as these barracks would have been built from wood. However remains of three central buildings occupy the space, these are the granaries, headquarters building and commandant’s house. Evidence of the large buttresses supporting the thick stone walls and heavy roof of the granary are prominent as well as the suspended flooring system to ensure the grain stays dry.
The watercolour painting above and sketchbook page below narrate the landscape of Wastewater. England's deepest lake and flanked by some of the highest mountains in England, such as Scafell Pike, Great Gable and Lingmell. A screed slope meets the south easterly side of the lake and a marshy moorland growing into hills on the north western edge.
The sketches below are from my travel A5 sketchbook, the sketchbook allows me to capture the landscape in person and aid with my later watercolour paintings which were created after the trip with a combination of the sketches and photographs taken at the lakes.
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