Otley has perhaps more then its fair share of small pubs -this one-The Black Bull- in the market square is where it is reputed that some of Cromwells army stayed the night before the final battle of the English Civil war at Marston Moor-Whatever your views about Cromwell you have to respect his troops fitness-it is about 25 miles to Marston Moor from here-not sure if too many people today would like to walk 25 miles and then the same day fight a decisive battle!!
Anyway here's a sketch of the pub in the market square today

Otley itself is a great town to live in.It is very much "what you see is what you get." The local lads all seem to play rugby in Otley.I was at the local chip shop recently with my partner-three young lads walked in -"who are you playing for next season was their question to each other" when one of them said -the town-i.e the local football club -the other two turned on him and with one voice said-"You wuss!"
Bay Horse court yard is one of the many attractive ginnels in town.this image like the next one came out of thec winter snows.

Above Otley where I live are moors-they extend for miles-crossing roads perhaps as far as Edinburgh-some 200 hundred miles away -but certainly as far as the borders.The woods in Timble back on to the moors- its a pleasant place for a short walk -and has the added advantage that the Dog loves romping in the woods.The picture is of one of the wood glades in the rain-just to dispell any myths that the sun always shines in Yorkshire!

The next was a part of a village in Swaledale that I had seen as I came down from the hills-nestling cosily in the dale

After the last abstracts I felt that I needed to get back to Yorkshire! the next six painting and sketches are part of that.The Dales are always beautiful and hard to paint as their colours are often muted.It is hard to do them justice!Here is the first try-Dent dale viaduct

An abstraction from plumton rocks near harrogate.Quite a magical place-it has been used as a location in many films and tv serials!It has a lake with large fish in it rocks and ravines, woods that always have blue bells in spring-A great place for a picnic!

These are three abstracts thac I did "along the way."i don't find abstraction easy always but theses came to me fairly quickly and were based on the minute rocks in a particular strata of rock that I found in the Yorkshire dales.The image in blues and browns took a olot of work balancing the colours in the middle section-I persevered and it worked!