Painting at Malham Tarn

As I write ,I should have been on the train heading south from Yorkshire after my painting course at Malham Tarn but I made that journey yesterday morning after a rough night when I realised that my cough and shivers were not improving and I wanted to be in my own bed.
Even though I missed 2 days of the course and was not at my best, I still got a lot out of it.

We started off with a demonstration by Katherine of the techniques and media she uses (watercolour, acrylics, pastels, collage, inks) - she made it look so simple!!
Then we sat under the covered area at the front looking out over the Tarn and tried to put mixed media into practice, not helped by all the layers we were wearing (it was bitterly cold) or the scattering of snow! I'd managed to sit under the only panel that wasn't glazed.
It was mesmerising watching the constantly changing colours in sky reflected in the water as the clouds advanced and I stayed on to paint while the others went into Settle to see exhibition at the Folly. In retrospect, I'm glad I made the best use of the time I had.


For me the best results on paper were when I used watercolours in the sky/water and acrylics and collage for the land giving more of a sense of structure and solidity.
I attempted one 'pure' acrylic painting on canvas board - rescued from blandness with dribbles of Paynes Grey acrylic ink. More about my rediscovery of inks in another post.
Still a long way to go to capture the subtlety of colour and line in the landscape.