Today I really had to get my head down and complete preparation for my contribution to our forthcoming group show at the South Square Centre. The theme we selected was “Current Obsessions”, which like the best exhibition themes is sufficiently compendious to give us all something to get our teeth into. I decided that what I would offer was not so much an insight into my current obsession, but a permanent obsession. I have put together a little display recording by engagement over many years with Almscliff Crag.
The first image of it in my collection was painted in early 2002, and the most recent in March 2018.* I have on record at least 25 pictures of Almscliff, and this includes only finished pieces and not sketches. The majority have been executed in pastel, but there are also works in acrylic, and my latest venture consists of a group of seven watercolour studies of the crag under snow during the recent severe winter. I have no doubt that I will return.
Why? You might well ask. Almscliff is known among rock-climbers as “God’s Own Crag”. Situated in a commanding position on its ridge above Wharfedale it does convey even to the non-climber a sense of it being a special (even a sacred) place. One of the images in my display is entitled EL. This is one of the Old Testament ways of referring to God, as well as being the graffitocarved at the base of the climbing route portrayed. My acquaintance with Almscliff as a climber is far older than as a painter. The first visit there recorded in my copy of the Yorkshire gritstone guidebook is dated 29 May 1979. The relationship has not always been friendly. My plans to draw there have been ended before they began on more than one occasion by the savagery of the weather. Once the route known as The Nose sneezed me out contemptuously, breaking an arm. I hope my colleagues find it interesting.
Partly because of the shortage of time and partly to save money I decided thatI would re-cycle an old frame to contain the central part of the display. This involved cutting my own mount. I got there in the end, but only after coming to the verge of apoplexy. It is during experiences like this that I realise just why it is that I am prepared to pay so much money to professional framers.
*The featured image today is my first, entitled, Almscliff Crag: not today I fear! I apologise for the quality of the photograph, but it does convey the general idea.