Hazy Morning Crummock Water by William Heaton Cooper R.I. (1903 - 1995)

“This is the place I enjoy more than anywhere else in the world,” William wrote in Mountain Painter, p.58, of Crummock Water in the north-western part of the Lake District. Here he paints from the shoreline at the foot of the lake, looking up towards the head of the Buttermere valley, slowly emerging from under a veil of late morning mist. To the left, Rannerdale Knot rises dramatically, while on the right the slopes of Mellbreak lead onto the dramatic High Stile range, and onwards further to Great Gable, only just visible in the distance.

“Whenever I walk down the rounded bay flanks of Mellbreak to the curved bay by the ancient pebble beach, along the light vari-coloured shore made of flat Skiddaw slate pebbles, perfect for ducks and drakes, with, here and there, a pink granite boulder that has fallen from one of the metamorphic fells between here and Red Pike, or a smoother green slab of rock brought down by glacial action from the head of the valley, I seem to expand and to glow with pleasure after it feeds my eyes on my spirit.

“From here, the fells on each side of the lake descend in steep flowing curves that flatten out towards its margin. On the right, the heather slopes of Mellbreak lead on to Red Pike, High Stile, High Crag and, last, Great Gable, seven miles away on the horizon.

“On the left, the magnificent peak of Rannerdale Knot stands dramatically against the southern light, above the fields of Rannerdale farm.

“Beside the natural composition of forms, the attraction that May morning has is the light. Especially subtle were the delicate gradations of tones of the fells on the right, that became paler and bluer up the length of the valley.

“To suggest the warm hazy sunlight typical of the Lake District rather than of any other country I flooded the whole paper, except the gleams of light far up the lake, starting very wet at the top with cobalt and vermilion, gradually reducing the blue towards the horizon, and, when I came to the foreground, painted it in the lightest tones of light red mixed with cadmium yellow. This all dried quickly in the sun, so then I started with Gable, in palest cobalt blue, gradually deepening and warming the shades of blue and grey, adding purples and siennas to the sunlit fellsides, ochres to the grasses, pale flicks of light red to suggest flat pebbles, greens and pinks of the boulders with their shadowed sides lit by reflected light, and, finally, the warm darks—burnt sienna and ultramarine—of the wall and railings.

“The small accents of dark in the foreground accentuated the light in the painting, in spite of its quiet colours, and the gleams on the far end of the lake gave a tone to the blue fells.

“Reflections were painted in horizontal strokes with a large brush, the water deepening in tone towards the foreground.

“Rarely have I felt so at peace while painting out-of-doors from nature, and something of the feeling of the day and place has got into the painting.” – William Heaton Cooper, Mountain Painter p.58.

Inner Print Sizes:

• Framed - 449 x 393mm / 17.7 x 15.5 inches (Inner Print: 300 x 225mm / 11.8 x 8.9 inches).
  
• Mounted - 426 x 368mm / 16.8 x 14.5 inches (Inner Print: 300 x 225mm / 11.8 x 8.6 inches).

Notes:

• Frame & Canvas dimensions may vary slightly due to the slight variations frame width.
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