Increasingly, I have become more and more drawn to mountains.

In the past, I've found them oppressive and domineering, bearing down onto us.

But recently, I've come to see them in a different light.

I find the unchanging undulations very reassuring.

The way the light changes as the day progresses, I've come to realise they change the way the sea changes.

I just hadn't noticed before.

Even on a damp summers day, these mountains in the Lake District, make you stand & stare.

Capturing the layers of the mountains in the drizzle, lends itself perfectly to printmaking.

This print was created on fabric, painted with watercolours, capturing the atmosphere of that rainy day perfectly.

We took a boat up the lake (Ullswater) and in the end we were the last voyage of the day, as the weather was so bad.

It was July by the way.

It's interesting to see how different the print looks if it's printed onto paper instead of fabric, really changing the quality of the marks.

I'm a huge fan of Arthur Ransome's writing, in particular Swallowdale, first published in 1931.

Set in the Lake District, he manages to scatter beautiful descriptions of the landscape through the text, without it feeling tedious or overly descriptive.

'They had been so taken up with the moorland and the big range of blue and purple hills stretching away into the distance that they had not looked back towards the lake below them. Now they turned and saw it , far away below , a blue and silver ribbon of water, with dark green wooded islands on it...'

chapter XII Swallowdale

In 2019, instead of reading a holiday novel, I decided to draw the mountains reaching into the sea on the north coast of Mallorca. 

Using pen and ink and simple lines, was soooooo soothing.

A tiny bit time consuming, so not overly practical in real life.

But perfect on a sun lounger.

Pen and ink Muleta Cove in Mallorca

Moments away from the routine of every day life are to be cherished, this is my way of capturing the memories.

I wonder where the next mountain will be?