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Andy Beck- The Wainwrights in colour.

The sketches shown here are the images that I have so far produced for this "Wainwright". The views are taken from the exact spot where A.W. stood to illustrate his seven pictorial guides. The comparative views are mainly different due to the time of day, weather conditions and seasonal differences. The originals of my sketches are approximately twice as wide and twice as high as A.W's pen and ink drawings. I have added notes to give more information to each sketch.

All images are the copyright of the artist.

To obtain these references has so far required 3 days of walking: 11/05/08, 23/7/09  3/5/11(click on the dates to see the photos)

Barf                                                      1536'

Barf

From the old main road. 23/7/09

This is an impressive angle to view the fell with the Bishop standing out on the heather covered slopes.

Barf The Bishop

The Bishop of Barf. 23/7/09

In AW's day the route to The Bishop from the steep scree slope passed to the right of the rock. Today that way is practically barred by dense growth of gorse though which I forced my way to get this same aspect.

Barf The rock step

The Rock Step. 23/7/09

The trees behind have been felled and the path is now more obvious than in AW's day.

Barf The Clerk

The Clerk 23/7/09

Hidden amongst the trees this small pinnacle of rock about 4' high still gets painted as does the Bishop.

Barf The Bishop

The Bishop. 23/7/09

To obtain this view you need to climb the steep slate scree slope. This angle of view requires an awkward stance at full height on loose scree, no place to get the watercolours out.

Barf Summit

The summit. 23/7/09

With the summit platform in sun the background hills of the Skiddaw group formed a nice contrast.

barf summit

The top of Barf. 23/7/09

The undulating heather topped slopes of the fell from a point away and above from the path seen on the right.

Lord's Seat from Barf

Lord's Seat. 23/7/09

AW gave Lord's Seat more of a peak but the scene is relatively unchanged.

Barf South Side

Barf south side. 23/7/09

The exact location of AW's sketch has now a foreground of tall conifers so this sketch is taken from a point about 15m left of his viewpoint.

Barf North side

Barf north side. 3/5/11

This sketch is one of the most remarkable of all. It took me a could of attempts to locate the proximity of this view as Wainwright does not refer to a path in this vicinity so I had to a bit of detective work to narrow the area down. A couple of hours wandering over the land above Wythop Wood and I came across this area and much to my surprise (and amazement) there was the dead fallen tree which AW drew in his sketch. Considering it was badly decayed in his drawing it is remarkable that it still exists albeit even more decayed. The two vertical trees in his drawings still exist, the one on the right just a mere stump of about 10 inches and the one on the left shown here is about 4 feet.

 

 Fell complete.

 

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