This was our first meal at the new lunch venue and comments were favourable. Alan had met us at the door reminding us – and showing us how – to log our car registrations to avoid a fine. The room was large with a lovely copper beech outside although, if we’d had more takers than the 38 at this lunch, it might have proved rather tight. The meal was a large portion, which some members found rather much, but it was very tasty. All in all, a good choice of venue – thank you to Nicola for arranging.
Andy Beck had spoken to us earlier at Holy Trinity about his book “Wainwright in Colour”, and he recapped briefly on this, while expanding on his life as an Artist. Born into an RAF family and having spent time in the RAF himself and always drawing for pleasure, he’d held a successful exhibition in Burford and considered making art his career. He left the RAF and moved to a gallery in Barnard Castle, making more valuable contacts in the art world, and drawing and painting pictures of Teesdale. He enjoyed “pleinair” painting, and the sketches of the Dales with colour washes were developed into studio paintings later – on bad weather days. He showed us the kit he used, and talked over the various techniques, showing us many examples.
He has worked in oils, watercolour and pencil sketches, and is working on a 2-volume “Lakeland 365”, because, out of his 1508 sketches of the Lake District, only 214 were used in the Wainwright book. He can be found at local country shows where he likes to tell the story of “how the painting came about”, to potential customers, making each painting a treasured possession.
He was warmly thanked by Janet Hutton, echoing our thoughts, and saying she hoped he would come again in the future.