High Cup Nick

This is High Cup Nick, a huge chasm up in the Pennines.  I've been meaning to paint it for years after seeing the source photo in the pages of the Metro.  I'm actually glad I waited so long because I think this is better suited to oil pastels than to my watercolours.  In fact, I can see a taxonomy developing where landscapes with lots of green get the oil pastel treatment but those with little green get the watercolours.

One of the reasons I'm happier using the oil pastels on this is is the swooshing marks I can get heading down the hills on both sides towards the stream at the bottom.  OK, I could do swooshing marks on watercolour but somehow they feel more believable in this medium.  It also helps that I can use lots of colours on both sides.  On the left there are generally (but not exclusively) darker greens, browns and reds whereas on the right there are lighter greens, yellows and white.  And I can play around with the colours.  If things are looking too dark, I can dab on more white or yellow and blend it in.  In watercolour, this sort of thing qualifies as tinkering and gets me into trouble.

For the rocks on the right, watercolours would have worked well but the oil pastels work too.  I put on all sorts of colours, sometimes in vertical strokes and sometimes in dabs and then scraped paint away with a scalpel to reveal paint underneath and addd texture.

The best thing about this one is the sunshine both on the hill on to the right and in places in the background.  Not convinced otherwise though.  This one's not going in the shop window.