A Lakes exhibition is to celebrate the nation’s favourite walks.
Britain’s Favourite Walks: Top 10 – inspired by the TV programme of the same name – will run at the Northern Lights Gallery in Keswick from May 28.
Fine artist Patricia Haskey has painted the 10 most popular walks, five of which are in the Lake District, including the top spot taken by Helvellyn.
“I’ve wanted to visit Helvellyn for ages and was really lucky that I chose to walk up on a day when the view was so clear that I could see for miles,” said Patricia, a professional artist since 1980.
“I drew some composition studies in my sketchbook and took photographs to remind me of the light and colours.”
Helvellyn has now become Patricia’s favourite walk thanks to its fabulous views and she has created five different versions of the mountain in a variety of media including oils, handmade prints, and pen and wash.
Catbells, Scafell Pike, Buttermere and Coniston are the other Lakes walks which Patricia has captured on canvas along with Snowdon and Tryfan in Wales; Malham Cove in North Yorkshire; Dunstanburgh in Northumbria, and Mam Tor in the Peak District.
Patricia completed most of these walks herself but when lockdown scuppered plans to visit those furthest away from her Heysham home, she relied on friends and relatives to send photographs.
Her dream is to hire a camper van and travel the country to paint the other 90 nation’s favourite walks.
“This exhibition is a celebration of my love of nature and this year it has taken on extra significance because walking in the great outdoors has become such a treasured experience for people,” said Patricia.
Lockdown has enabled Patricia to be more experimental and use new materials including inks and vintage watercolours seen in this latest collection which encompasses the whole process.
Patricia has been a permanent exhibitor at the Northern Lights Gallery since 2010 but this will be her first solo exhibition there.
Among her previous exhibitions in Cumbria are one at Brantwood in Coniston to mark Ruskin’s 200th anniversary in 2019 and a solo show, Near and Far, at Low Sizergh Barn near Kendal last winter.
Britain’s Favourite Walks: Top 10 will run from May 28 to July 4.
