Kristanbaggaley's Blog

A strong northerly wind blowing over Stanage Edge, milky winters light, subdued colours. The caw of a crow overhead. The rocks take on a dark wall like quality for all its 3.5 miles. Why do I and thousands of others return here, particularly on these short bleak winter days ? It is a landscape which is truly sublime.

Experienced being surrounded by a sleet shower on Stanage Edge. Watched the weather approach from several miles away. Tried to capture the moment before the shower totally enveloped the landscape. Interesting to try and capture such a fleeting moment, no sketch, no photo, only the memory, over in less than a minute

The finished painting, mood, atmosphere and colour, as I want it. The painting is based on a shower I experienced moving quickly towards me along the Edge in December 2015.

Developing the image

The initial planning of a painting of Stanage Edge

150 x 100 cm Morning Light Stanage Edge. Mixed Media on Canvas

A painting showing sunlight breaking through clouds along the length of Stanage Edge.

100 x 100 cm Late Afternoon Stanage Edge. Mixed Media on Canvas

150 x 100 cm Winter evening Shower Stanage Edge Mixed Media on Canvas

Stanage Edge is a one of the longest gritstone edges in the Dark Peak District. It is near to where I was born and I now live in Sheffield. Over the years I have returned to the edge numerous times and painted it on hundreds of occasions in all seasons and weather conditions. Discovering colours in this landscape has been one of my passions over the years.

100 x 100 cm  Footpath leading to Stanage Edge.  Mixed Media on Canvas

My work is synonymous with the Dark Peak and interpreted in textured paintings of the moors and grit edges, in all weather and seasons.

Sketchbook drawing and watercolour painting in the landscape is a very important to my creative process, discovering compositions, colour and  light

I have developed a very physical painting technique when interpreting the Dark Peak District in oils. Splattering, dripping, scraping and eventually building up dense layers of paint and sand on the canvas. The surface texture of the work is all important to me, adding materials from the landscape including, bracken, heather and grit sand, which are attached to the canvas with strong glues.

150 x 100cm Clearing rain towards Kinder Scout. Mixed Media

I cut and drag the media around the canvas, using palette knives, forks, spoons, etc.

              150 x 100cm Evening Shower Over Ladybower Reservoir. Mixed Media

These processes combine to reinforce the lack of permanence in the nature of landscape. For me, the properties of a landscape can best be discovered when I have visited a location numerous times, preferably over several years. In painting familiar subject matter, the inessential falls away leaving only the essential.

Dramatic break in the clouds over Stanage Edge. The rain continues to fall

An image showing the start of a new painting on a 120 x 80 cm canvas, using mixed media and oil paint. Then its development after several more hours painting

Started a series of unusual rock formations on Stanage Edge. This piece is on 150 x 100 cm  canvas painted with a mixed media technique. It has just finished raining and the rocks are glistening with water and a new shower is approaching from the west.

The warm weather, cloud and heavy rain mean the weather patterns in this country are changing?

These small canvas pieces are about this possible change, less light and softer colours. The glimpses of blue sky and vapour trails at the moment seem rare. 

Sodden earth and dark tonal colours but the landscape shimmers with glistening wetness