The English Lakes

Just got back from a mini-holiday with my sister and 94 year old mother in the Lake District. I haven't been there for nearly 30 years-why not? It's fantastic! I didn't have chance to do much sketching but took photos and will try and do some work using these. The colours are what I am trying to retain, the bracken and the lime green of moss and the abstract quality of the fells and stone walls. Unfortunately the only gallery I went in was full of perfectly competent water colours, non of which in my opinion had any 'soul'! What seemed like hundreds of paintings which all looked the same except for the name of the location on the bottom. I must go back to find some more interesting artists, who I'm sure are working in, and getting inspiration from, that stunning environment. Of course photos, no matter how 'artistic' give a completely different 'feel' to what we see when sketching and what we see through a viewfinder. For me, they are only reference points; there seems absolutely no point in trying to 'copy' what the photos has captured in another medium.