Northumberland

‘Northumberland’ captures the geographic beauty of Whin Sill; a ridge of volcanic rock that stretches from Teesdale through Northumbria and northwards to Berwick.   Forster describes a passage of Whin Sill that houses a Roman Wall, creating a dialogue between man’s interventions with nature.

Being native to Northumberland I felt it would be impossible not to represent the landscape that initially influenced my work and has continued to inspire me as a watercolourist.

There are many parts of Northumberland that I would have liked to paint; from the open Moors of Allendale; the Shire South of Hexham; to the huge mounds of the cheviots and its rivers such as the Coquet and College burn, not to mention the coasts and castles that Northumberland is famous for.  However I chose to paint the Roman wall.  There can be few more impressive historical sites than this.  There is a stretch of the wall in Tynedale that hugs the contours of the natural volcanic rock shelf known as the Whin Sill. As you enter Tynedale from the west this rock looks like a huge breaking wave that stretches for ten miles or more, hundreds of feet high, threatening to smash its way northwards towards the Scottish border.

It is plain to see why the Romans chose Hadrian’s Wall as their natural northern border. This is a wild and rugged landscape with a perpetual breeze in summer and gale in winter it must have been a tough existence for the Roman soldier. It is an inspirational landscape and one that I am pleased to have conquered through the Uber technique.  I kept to an uncomplicated palette for this painting, and is constructed in just three washes as I felt the contours of the landscape were complex enough to carry this level of simplicity.