View from Went Hill

On Saturday 6th August 2022 I walked from Wentbridge to Went Hill. From Went Hill, you get a very good view across the southern half of the Wakefield District, from Upton, across over Badsworth, Ackworth, and East Ardsley to Woolley Edge. A large hill north of Ackworth hides the city of Wakefield itself and the towns east of that. The woods at the end of Went Hill hide Pontefract and Castleford. Because of the shape of the district, Knottingley is behind you. Carrying my painting paraphernalia from Boundary No Boundary I set out to paint what I could see. Unfortunately, the only painting boards I had to hand were quite a bit bigger than the Boundary No Boundary ones, (40cm x 20cm as opposed to 30cm x 15) but you just have to go with what you’ve got sometimes. (Boundary No Boundary is a project from 2018 – more information can be found here Boundary No Boundary – Exhibition

Despite the generally warm weather on the long walk up the hill, the strong winds on top meant I got cold very quickly.

As with the Boundary paintings I painted with acrylic paints directly onto 3 boards, with no underdrawing. I would spend about 10 minutes at a time on each board in turn. That way I could bring them all along at the same time. (I think if I completed one first I wouldn’t ever finish the other two). The boards would not be lined up until all three paintings were finished. That way I could capture three views from the chosen location rather than one split into three sections. This allows me to change my focus and ‘zoom’ in and out to best capture what I see.

I started painting at 10:00am and ended at 3:00pm.

Here are the three paintings that form ‘View from Went Hill’ –

Here they are jointed together –

In August 2018 I painted three panels, from Doncaster Road looking past Went Hill towards Ferrybridge Power Station (which has since been demolished).

Here are those three panels –

Where ‘View from Went Hill’ is painted from is located on top of Went Hill, on the right hand side panel on the first patch of light green from the right.

In ‘View from Went Hill’ you can see 5 of the Solitary Trees I captured at the start of the year. They are all in the third panel. Numbers 37, 34 and 39 are in the field to the right (I have peculiar rules regarding Solitary Trees, you can have more than one in a field but they must not be part of a hedgerow and they must not be touching each other). Number 35 is in the field to the left of the center of the painting. Remarkably, and this did take me by surprise, Number 1 is in the distance. It’s in a field on the hill in the far distance just above and to the right of Number 35. (It doesn’t show up too well in the photograph of that panel.

Here it is in the center of a photograph of that detail –

It is just over 10 miles away.

The drawings of the Solitary Trees in winter can be found here Solitary Trees

Rather infuriatingly the very prominent solitary trees in the second panel are new to me.