Landscape Paintings of the Lake District .The Lingholm Estate Collection .
Resident Artist Rob Miller RSA
Early explorations and thumbnail drawings
Drawings of The Lake District Derwentwater Fells and the Lingholm Estate Portinscale
Developing form and composition across both triptychs
A brief history of Lingholm and the Vale of Keswick
"FAR from my dearest Friend, 'tis mine to rove; Through bare grey dell, high wood, and pastoral cove; Where Derwent rests, and listens to the roar, That stuns the tremulous cliffs of high Lodore; William Wordsworth An Evenings Walk
In the industrialised Victorian era the Vale of Keswick and remote Borrowdale held a fascination for readers and viewers of Painters and writers. The wool producing town of Keswick witnessed a changing landscape as splendid holiday homes surrounded by gardens and Parkland were built for the English Elite taking over from the old farming practices. Alongside the change from farming to tourism an historic attachment developed between the arts, the environment and industrialists. Its this that created the beautiful landscape of parkland backed by wild fells and tumbling rivers that we see today.
The Lingholm Estate was one of the premier houses in the Vale of Keswick. Dr Dalton, William Turner, Constable, Dr John Brown, Ruskin and Beatrice Potter amongst many others found inspiration here. They marvelled in the pure sparkling lake and the high and steep fells. "Derwent water, here was beauty lying in the lap of horrour" wrote Charles Avison in 1780.
The Estate has continued its creative links into the present day with the commissioning of two large triptychs by Lake District artist Rob Miller for the Stone Room.
Sketch Book entries ...Lingholm Sketchbook
"Despite the tight time table to get the triptychs complete for the Houses first large event I had a significant feeling of adventure and history during those months at Lingholm. I woke at 7.30am I went down from the Skiddaw Suite into my studio with the winter suns rays flickering across Derwentwater. Taking my sketch book I'd follow in Beatrice Potters footsteps to the Lake side and an unchanged view of Herberts Island. On return after breakfast I got my painting gear together and row out to the Lingholm Islands; making paintings of Derwentwaters wooded foreshore with Causey Pike and Catbells, a hazy Borrowdale and the glowing Skiddaw massif.
I spent a number of days on the Lake rowed by my brother Andy or drifting along zen like by myself. Creating a visual memory to be used later in the studio by drawing quickly in charcoal Getting to know the local geese intimatley as they skimmed incvhes above my head or honked happily and very noisly feet away from my varied vantage points, especially on the Lingholm Islands.
On this page you will see the result of an artists exploration of the Lake District and Derwentwater and her local fells through drawings in charcoal and ink.
