Why I chose the Yorkshire Wolds

For a start, they're not far away. There's more to it than that though, of course…

The Yorkshire Wolds is a vast area of majestic high rolling hills. They stretch from the East Coast of Yorkshire to the Vale of York, 40 miles away (64 km).

The Yorkshire Wolds cover the top half of East Yorkshire, spreading into North Yorkshire a little too. Yorkshire is split into North (The largest county in the UK), West, South and the East Riding of Yorkshire. It's in the North of England (part of the UK).

Hills with curves to die for

At their highest, the Wolds rise to 656 feet (200 metres). Not that you'd ever know you were on a peak on these gracefully rounded hills.

They're not that high as hills go, but they are XL size (Extra large), even XXL. Broad and sweeping, they have a majestic scale that matches that of higher peaks in my view.

The curves you see in the Wolds landscape are sublime because of their big scale. These arcs give the area a softness. I don't want to say like pillows, but many of the shapes do have a similarity.

For an artist, these curves present a challenge. It's easy to end‑up with an ungainly line over such a length. Drawing a graceful, naturally asymmetric curve is quite a task, especially when it crosses a whole canvas.

You don't have to have read much on this website to know I love an artistic challenge. It's one of the reasons I chose the Yorkshire Wolds landscape for my project.

The dales of the wolds

Then there are the valleys, called Dales. Yes, there's 'The Dales' over to the West. They're a different landscape entirely (A future art project without a doubt).

'The Dales' translated strictly would be 'the valleys', because the word dale means valley. So it's perfectly logical that the hollows in the East Riding of Yorkshire are dales too.

These dales are glacial in origin, formed when the ice covering this part of the UK melted. The melt‑water shaped meandering valleys through the softly rounded uplands I've just described.

Some of these valleys are deep and steep‑sided, though they're nowhere near vertical. They always slope, and I've never seen any rocky outcrops, or any boulders of any size, interrupting the oddly consistent inclines.

The area sits on England's most northern arm of chalk. Chalk is porous and an easily eroded material, I understand (I'm no geologist).

There's a lack of rivers in the Wolds, even in the valley bottoms which are often completely dry. It's because of the chalk, and it also explains why the landscape is curves and slopes, rather than angles and flat slabs.

There's a magical softness and grace to the monumental Yorkshire Wolds, and this is at the heart of what beckoned me to them.

  1. "Dale" a valley, especially in Northern England. Source: Cambridge Dictionary & Thesaurus © Cambridge University Press) [ Accessed: May 1, 2023 ].
  2. There are Wolds in the county of Lincolnshire, which is why I tend to say 'Yorkshire Wolds', instead of just 'Wolds'. The Lincolnshire Wolds are lower and cover a smaller area I understand. I have been, and this was my impression.

Below: I use different sketchbooks for different purposes at the beginning of my art projects. While I've described a logical progression, it's not always so!

Sketchbook showing sketch of Bamburgh Castle

Above, is my 'project' sketchbook. I use this one first, whenever I visit a location – in survey mode.

It's about 'getting‑to‑know' a place at this stage. It's not unusual to end up with several sketches of the same scene, all from different viewpoints. There's a lot of walking about, including some back and forth.

As you can see, by the time I took this photo, the light was fading fast. It was taken in October when days are shortening, and the light disappears rapidly.

Sylvan Dale, Yorkshire Wolds

Thumbnail for an oil painting of Bamburgh beach

The photo isn't great, but it does show another sketchbook I use.

My initial sketches tell me if the scene is engaging. If it looks good, then this larger sketchbook comes out for detailed, observational drawings, complete with notes.

It's a bit heavy for carting up hills (I'm looking for a lighter version), but I need the size.

This sketchbook is used to explore a specific painting (or print) idea. I'm considering detail, fathoming composition, and thinking through challenges.

Frendal Dale, Yorkshire Wolds

Sketchbook and paints with a valley meandering away behind it

Having assessed whether things are coming together and identified challenges to overcome, it's on to the next exercise.

We're into some serious painting intentions now. I've pretty much decided I'm making a studio painting by the time I'm working in this sketchbook.

Of course, there's no guaranteed success with art – there's still work to do before starting a canvas or cutting lino.

The sketchbook is home‑made. It's an odd size based on an American landscape painter's – a painter whose process I admire.

Brubberdale – one word, I know, odd isn't it.

Sketching the landscape

Updated 1 May 2023

For all the softness in the shapes in the Yorkshire Wolds landscape, it's a harsh environment.

On a glorious sunny day, the Yorkshire Wolds are a paradise, especially for those who like to roam through open spaces.

Several substantial walks pass through the Yorkshire Wolds. The Yorkshire Wolds Way, The Minster Way and The Chalkland Way, that I can recall.

It's a walkers haven. On a sunny weekend – it's busier than Briggate1 (as my family say). Immediately after lockdowns stopped it was more so than ever.

At other times during the week, it's wonderfully peaceful, and it's returned to being so again now.

The Yorkshire Wolds are a fascinating place. Not only the wildlife, but the upside‑down farming too (animals in the valleys and crops on the tops).

Ancient sites litter the area – there's far more than you can shake a stick at2. I'm not sure you're ever very far away from an earthwork, or tumuli, on the Yorkshire Wolds. They're a whole other art project.

Sketching there, you climb a lot. It's only hard climbing if you try to scale one of the steeper slopes. The long grass can be slippy, and unless there are animal tracks, there's little foothold to be had.

How they put in the fences that climb straight up the slopes, I have no idea – now that's hard work.

After a while, you begin to see how every slope has its own character. I worked out it's the direction they face in – North-East, North, South-West, etc. Every slope gets different weather, some balmy, others severe.

The animals roaming the slopes affect the texture and colour, too. Sheep on the steeper slopes feed differently to cattle on the softer inclines.

You see these things by spending a lot of time looking. It's an artist's truth: the more you look, the more you see.

The Yorkshire Wolds are a "windy 'oil", as we say around here. It's a harsh cold wind too – it takes no prisoners.

Even on the sunniest day, a sneaky cool breeze will whip across the tops, or channel along the slopes.

I've come home with a deep chill inside after several hours sketching in September and October. The kind of coldness that lingers despite a couple of hours in the warm.

In Winter the dales funnel the cold. You can see it in the toughness of the shrubs and trees growing there. Hawthorn and gorse dominate.

Only where a valley happens to turn so the sun can shine into it for any length of time, do other less hardy trees grow.

I've built a library of sketches and got to know the place, identifying what I think is the nature of the area. Next is making oil paintings 'en plein‑air'*An art term meaning 'in the fresh air' (testing ideas or trying out specific compositions) before I move into the studio with all this lovely reference material.

After a couple of foolish sessions attempting plein‑air paintings early this year, I've accepted defeat and am waiting for warmer months – I'm just not made of the right stuff.

April 2023 has proved disappointing weather wise here in the North of the UK, and developing this website is gobbling up huge amounts of precious time – it's proving frustrating.

One thing about being an artist, is that you have to be someone who doesn't give up too easily, or let go of ideas just because weather and life keep you from them. This project will get done.

The Yorkshire Wolds are a wonderfully rich, nuanced and dramatic place. Having spent time letting it get under my skin, I'm a little over‑awed at the task ahead of me – and also filled with a yearning to be there, brush in hand.

  1. Briggate is a main shopping street in central Leeds. Back in the day, it was one of the busiest places in Yorkshire I understand.
  2. Shake a stick at. Odd saying, as sayings often are.

The more I've studied the Yorkshire Wolds…

…the more I've fallen in love with them. I'm thoroughly looking forward to being holed‑up in my studio making my new landscape series when the time comes, trying to put some of the magic on canvas.

On one sketching trip, I was working away on a hillside when everything settled into silence. That uncanny miraculous quiet that sometimes materialises on a warm sunny afternoon.

I stopped drawing and marvelled at it – a pause, where everything stood still.

A silent half‑minute passed, and then from down the dale, a cautious haunting call rippled and echoed.

The soft sound drifted and filled the valley. An owl, calling from its sleepy daytime perch.

A moment passed, noiseless, long and slow. Then another owl answered from further away!

Everything, including me, seemed to hold its breath, waiting. Just as the silence settled back, another hooted softly from the opposite direction, followed by the first again.

The three of them lazily called to each other for just a minute or two, then returned to their sleep, and the noise of the distant world floated back up the dale.

A hauntingly beautiful interlude that had my insides ballooning fit to burst. A 'good to be alive' moment.

Several Buzzards rose and circled into the scene in front of me. The cattle continued their rumination and a Kestral hovered over the gorse. The sun gently warmed everything, giving the world resuming its everyday rhythm a yellow glow. If only…, if only I could put all this magic into paint and ink.

It's happened just once more, again when a silence gathered. It wasn't as long and involved just two birds. I can only imagine that most people, chatting and tramping, never experience this Yorkshire Wolds.

The universe is full of magical things patiently waiting for our wits to grow sharper Eden Phillpotts (1862‑1960), English author, poet and dramatist. My artistic quest

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