Northumberland 2009 UNda

50cm x 50cm (unframed)

80cm x 80cm (framed)

Watercolour

The Water Colour painting Uber-Northumberland captures the geographic beauty of the Whin Sill; a ridge of volcanic rock that stretches from Teesdale through Northumbria and northwards to Berwick. This is where the Romans built Hadrian’s Wall.

Being native to Northumberland I felt it would be impossible not to include a painting of 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 include in this series and will in the future paintings; 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 coastal castles that Northumberland is famous for.

However I chose this painting of Hadrian’s Wall. There can be few more impressive historical sites in Northumberland than this. There is a stretch of Hadrian’s Wall in Tyndale that hugs the contours of 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 Northumberland as their natural northern border and built Hadrian’s Wall. 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 painted and 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.