Landscape Painting on iPad

This image was painted from memory of my time in Cumbria, the English lake district. The mountain range in this region was carved away during the last ice age. So the valleys have quite steep slopes and cliffs either side owing to the action of glaciers. Although the fells are not all that high they are very rugged, and covered for the large part in trees. In fact from the road the trees tend to block your view as you can see.

By contrast the place where I live in Lancashire is very flat. On the boundary of Chat moss: an ancient peat bog that was drained much later for farming purposes. In fact I live by the biggest drain of all, the Manchester Ship canal that runs from Liverpool to Manchester. However, there are not any high vantage points to view the moss from so the image below is a bird's eye view which I did entirely from imagination. The mountain in the distance on the far right is known as Winter Hill.

On the other hand, this tiny enclave is a part of Chat moss that is easy to miss from the road, and leads directly to the farms. As you can see it is painted in a more realistic fashion taken from a photograph.

Moving westward into Wales the next image is of the Vale of Llangollen painted again from memory and imagination.

Again, the following is my impression a typical Welsh valley that I did in the context of a thumbnail sketch, hence the rather rapid strokes which I prefer because they activate the surface and animate the composition more.

In a more fanciful fashion this next one could be almost anywhere in the world, but reminds me again of being on the slopes of the Lakeland fells. Except that the colours make it look rather more exotic.

Overlooking the Mersey estuary is the lovely village of Frodsham. This is painted from memory of the escarpment above the village, which I did in watercolour on my iPad.

Another watercolour, of a field with trees, which again, could be the backdrop to any rural setting.

In the next image I got a little carried away with creating a textured surface to evoke the sense of a mid, to late twentieth century modernist style of painting. To be honest with you I love this way of working because it is so much more adventurous.

In fact, here again in the following two images I expand on this modernist approach to produce something equally exotic and stimulating on the eye. Albeit, a little less frenetic in character.

I shall finish with two more images that were intended for illustration purposes only. One is of a grave yard overlooking a valley in autumn just as the leaves are falling, and the second of the Grand Canyon in America which I have never visited, but have always wanted to. Although because of the bright primary colours it does tend to look like a backdrop to a Walt Disney cartoon.