Tor Falcon
These pastel drawings are a small selection from a bigger exhibition I had in Cumbria last year. We live and work in Norfolk but my husband’s family were originally from Cumbria, their farming roots are deep and we spend a lot of time there.
I first came to Loweswater 30 years ago, when I met my husband. He showed me round - took me to the lake, up the fells, looking for crystals in the disused mines, picking bilberries and fishing. He showed me all the things he loved about this place. It was only when the children got older and I started to take myself off drawing that I began to see and move about in this landscape differently. There are things, like the lone thorn at the bottom of Low Fell or the sagging zig-zag of wall behind the house that I’ve drawn over and over again. There are places that I’ll never tire of, like the curve of the fold of the ground above the beck. Unlike many of my projects, in which I move through an unfamiliar landscape using drawing as a way of exploring, these Cumbrian pictures are of somewhere I now know well. The Lake District- famous holiday destination - much written about, endlessly photographed and painted, ceaselessly trampled on, bicycled over and swum in. We all see it differently, there are as many different points of view as there are people; from Chris and Susan making a living farming in the fells to the hoteliers and tea shop owners, the retirees, the second home owners, those seeking tranquility - or thrills - or romance, the foodies, the health freaks, the litterers, the idiots and the dog walkers. The whole world is here, everyone’s got a view. To add to the cacophony, here are my drawings of a farm in the fells.