The Wondering Falls

"Cat Gill Falls"

By James Swanson / Traveler Neil
12" x 9" Oil on panel

Watch the journey of this painting.

Fell and walking? They sure don't sound like they go together, but they do.

Photo's are from Traveler Neil all rights reserved.

Take hill and walking, they sound fine together. Hill walking, right? Well, when I looking up what exactly Hill walking was, I came across the term Fell walking.

I Googled Fell walking to see what it was and that is how I stumbled upon our next Traveler Neil's web site.

Neil at High Seat Summit

Neil has a very nice web site that documents his walks with a ton of good info about his walks and trails. Oh and lots of wonderful photos of these journeys.

Neil has done pretty much all the walks you can in the UK. All ending with tired feet and a smile on his face.

A High Seat Trig Pillar Flush Bracket marking the top.

And the difference between Fell walking and Hill walking, Fell walking takes place on mountains and Hillwalking, yeah you know.

Into the woods.

Traveler Neil’s Story: This was a day of mixed fortunes and experiences. Mark and I drove to Ashness Bridge on the eastern side of Derwent Water and parked in the car park just beyond the bridge. There was lots of room in the car park as we were quite early for most I suspect. After putting on our boots and organizing our rucksacks and equipment we eventually set off at about 8.55am. Although it was mainly cloudy we did have a few glimpses of the sun as we headed back down the road to Ashness Bridge.

Another splendid photo from Neil's walk

We took a path on the right hand side after the bridge, which ascended the hillside below Brown Knotts. Still gradually ascending we followed the path above Falcon Crag and round to Cat Gill. Then we carried on to Lady’s Rake and finally the summit of Walla Crag at 379 meters. This was our first Wainwright of the day and was quickly reached in about ½ an hour.

Derwent Water & Bassenthwaite from near Bleaberry Fell

The views across Derwent Water were great although some of the high fells were obscured by cloud. In front were the Newlands Fells (including Cat Bells, Maiden Moor, High Spy and Dale Head), to our right were the Coledale Fells and Lorton Fells, and in the distance were Bassenthwaite and Keswick. It certainly was a superb panorama.

Neil's photo of Cat Gill Falls taken during his walk.

Travelers painting " Cat Gill Falls" This is a quick paint day for me. The holidays are here and spending a lot of time in my cold studio isn't going to go over well with the family.

The photo I chose to paint from Neil had to be something that I could handle in a few hours and something that I haven't done before.

I've seen a lot of great waterfall shots from Travelers while working on this project, but this one of Neil's just felt different to me. Like something that I might want to paint if I was in hid shoes and standing before the falls, and with the name Cat Gill Falls I had to take a shot at it.


The sketch just a quick warm up and a way to lock in the design for the painting. The design was already there in Neil's photo. a graceful S.

I toned a panel with some thinned out Raw Sienna and whipped out the falls with a paper towel.

The darks are painted in. It looks like I used the same dark for for this stage, but there are at least 4 colors there- just a bad photo.

The structure of the painting is done. Time to paint in some cools to balance it off.

Blocking in, I'm bring in the greens here to get it blocked in quickly.

The Greens are done, more cools are added. Starting to paint in the depth.

Painters Tip: Simple one Cool Colors recede in space and Warm Colors come forward in space. When you put a warm color of the same value against a cool color the warm always comes forward. That's why stop signs are red.

Pretty much blocked in now. time to refine things a bit.

I've been waiting and waiting to put in the flower colors. I wanted to put them in thick and juicy, and didn't want wet paint to mix with them to much. I mixed up a few different shades of the rose color to keep this color from flattening out the painting.

Done. I just went in with the palette knife here and there to finish it up.

Details for the Painting

Framed Painting

"Cat Gill Falls"

By James Swanson / Traveler Neil
12" x 9" Oil on panel

I really enjoyed this paint. It was quick and to the point, but meeting Traveler Neil was the high point. Thanks Neil for the sharing of photos and your story. Your walks are beautiful to see, hopefully I'll paint one in person one day.

Walkers take are a great help in my journey to see this world, if you have a journey or trip that was interesting let me know here or at www.theartistandthetraveler.org.

Thanks for looking in, I'm just truck'n on down the road.

"The Kind Soul"

"The Kind Soul"

By James Swanson / Traveler David W.

24" x 18" Oil on wood panel

See the journey steps of this painting.

"In Heaven there is no beer, that's why we drink it here"- From the polka of the same name.

When I began this painting journey one of the first persons that I met was Traveler David W.

Traveler David W. at the pub.

I was sitting at a train station on a cold March morning feeling very happy and excited, because I had just came up with the Artist and Traveler idea the day before, and along comes Traveler David W. and stands besides me.

The London snow. File photo

He grins as the train approaches and says that he has been chased by the snow since October. Then goes on to tell me about being stranded North of London for the Super Bowl because of it.

14" of snow in London.

And just like that, a light bulb goes off in my head saying, I have to talk to this man, this is the start of the journey. So I did and haven't looked back since, so here's Travelers David W. story.

Letchmore Heath, Watford, Hertfordshire- file photo no snow

Traveler David W. Story: David was in London for business and was caught in one of the biggest snow storms that they have had there in years, 14" of it. David was staying with some friends in Letchmore Heath, north of London when it hit. He was only going be staying for short time, but ended up staying for weeks after being snowed in.

One of the places that was open in Letchmore Heath during that time was the village pub -The Three Horseshoes. A Great little gem. Very friendly locals and staff, very cozy wee pub to wile away an wintery evening in. And that is what our Traveler David W. did, spending some time with friends over a tall cool one.

The photo of Traveler David W. that I chose to paint from.

The Traveler Painting "The Kind Soul"

When I looked at Traveler David W. photo album of Letchmore Heath one of my favorite photos was of the bar maid looking off into the distance.

It reminded me of Edouard Manet's painting "A Bar at the Folies-Bergere" and I thought how appropriate, painting in a pub in England.

The Sketch- What I tried to do here is work out the movement in the the painting. How I was going to lead the viewers eye around by lining up objects in the painting.

The Sketch on wood panel- A oil wash is applied to the panel and with vine charcoal I laid in the sketch. I've painted a few landscapes on these panels, but this is the portrait painting that I'm trying one on.

Painting in the darks colors first. It sounds like a broken record after a while, but you have to start so where and the structure needs to stand out first. Everything of the painting works off that structure.

Painting in the skin color. This was a bit tricky. The image is a lot darker than you would think, and I had to mix the paint colors quite a few times to get the right values.

Painting in the background. The warm yellow walls and the cool light coming in from the right was a tough one to make work. At this stage it isn't working, but there still is a lot of painting to do and getting the painting blocked in is the most important thing right now.

End of Day one - Painting is blocked in, but I need a fresh eye before I look at it again.

The redefining of shapes and color is my next step in this painting. I saw a lot of drawing problems and color problems in the painting at this stage. I also felt I was losing a lot of the freshness in the painting, and decided to use a tip that I received from a dear old painting buddy, who always has good ideas on how to save a painting.

Painters Tip from Mike L.- When painting from a photo it's good sometimes to flip the canvas upside down and paint. That way can you see and paint the shapes and not get caught up with, is it looking right and fiddling to much in one area. It will freshen up a painting and feel more natural.

The painting flipped back around and ready to be finished up. Painting upside down fixed a lot of my problems with this painting. The tint of the skin was way to light and not near warm enough. The face shape was off, the shadow side was too light, and the shadow shapes were wrong.I also removed the beer tap on the warm side, it didn't feel right.

Now the painting is getting there. I need to move some color around - like the blues and some cool colors to the warm side of the painting. I repainted the hoody that she is wearing. It was too light and cool. There are still drawing problems, but I know what they are and will get to them. And I also put back in the beer tap, it did need something on that side to balance off the composition.

Done, at least for now. When it dries I might need to rework some face shadows, but for now it good. By putting some cool colors on the left side the painting has a much better flow and the yellow walls don't scream out so much.

Details of the painting.

Finish and framed

"The Kind Soul"

By James Swanson / Traveler David W.

24" x 18" Oil on wood panel

Painting a English pub was a very jolly good time for me. I was able to work my way though a crowd of problems that I was having and able to finish the painting. I also received a good tip from a friend on painting that I was able to share.

I thank Traveler David W. for being a part of this journey and look forward to painting with David again. It was special to be able to paint something from the first person I met on this journey. If someone out there who has a travel story and would like to be a part of this project contact me here or at www.TheArtistAndTheTraveler.org

Until next time Cheerio!

"The Local"

"The Local"
By James Swanson/ Traveler Eric
16"x 20" Oil on Canvas

See the painting step for this painting journey.

Yellowstone might have the bears, but Scotland has the sheep. Not baaad!

It's pretty common where I live to go out for a walk and come across a dog or cat, but what if you ran into sheep or cattle? Hillwalkers in Scotland are use to seeing them, in fact they are the locals of the area and the walkers are the tourists.

All photos are Traveler Eric's

On a slope of a mountain in Scotland, is where we meet up with are old friend Traveler Eric again. I was trying not to paint any more of Eric's photos for a while, but a couple of paintings still have some work to do to them, so here's Eric.

Traveler Eric

Traveler Eric Story:

Buachaille Etive Mor - Scotland

This is a wonderful hike. You get to climb several peaks; get impressive views (weather permitting) and the climbing is really quite easy. The initial ascent up the gully is short and steep but it isn't really dangerous; it just looks that way.

The slowest part was taking the trail down into the valley and hiking back to the road. It's a swampy low level walk thru the glen.

Cloud did blow in within seconds. When we climbed the first peak I was racing to get pictures before we were socked in clouds. The cloud came and went quickly and after another hour the clouds lifted and we had a hot sunny day; very unusual on our trip!

The photo that I will be using.

Traveler Painting "The Local" When I come across good Travelers for this painting series, it's like striking gold for me, and Traveler Eric is a gold mine. He loves his hikes and he takes plenty of photos to document where he has been. This photo that I chose is the start of the animal section of this journey.

The Sketch: As always I plan the trip that I'm going to take. The photo of Eric's already had a good design to it. All I had to do break it down what it was and stick it in my head.

The sketch on Canvas: I rubbed in thinned out paint into the canvas to rid my self of the white blank sheet. I rubbed in a mixture of Venation Red and Brunt Umber, and then pulled out the lighter spots the painting.

Adding the darks first. This helps put the structure of the painting in place.

Starting to block in the painting. I 'm trying to capture the depth in the photo. The greens were a bit tricky. Getting them to lay down right took a bit of trial and error in the paint mixing.

Putting in the far background and sky. It's all blocked in and the colors are harmonizing pretty pretty well.

Painters Tip: Getting color harmony in a painting is one of the most important things for a successful painting. Your colors have too have a relationship with each other, and work together. I start at the palette for this relationship. I work out the colors ahead of time there, before I touch the canvas with a brush. When you have most of the colors that you need for the painting mixed on your palette, squint your eyes and to see how they work. If a color jumps way out at you, it's probably a wrong color.

The Sheep. I've been painting everything in this picture but the main focal point. I wanted to have everything ready for this guest before I put him in.

There are rocks everywhere in the foreground, but I didn't want to noodle them out or to noodle out the sheep. They needed to be painted in the same manor as the background. There will be a lot of knife work done for the details, that way I can't miss paint our friend.

Done, that's it. Not too baaad. (Bad joke again) In the detail pictures of the painting all the brush strokes should show through.

Details of the painting.

"The Local"
By James Swanson/ Traveler Eric
16"x 20" Oil on Canvas

Scotland sure has some great walks, and it doesn't matter if you travel by two feet or four to enjoy them. I want to thank Eric again for being such a good Traveler and for his photos. I am always looking for new travelers for this series if you are interested email me here or contact me at theartistandthetraveler.org

Well, I'm off to talk to some new Travelers, thanks for looking in and see ya on down the road. Ta Ta for Now.