A recent commission was to draw this house in Chapel Allerton, Leeds.
It was built 200 years ago, in 1820 – the same year that Anne Brontë was born and HMS Beagle first launched.
Anne Brontë
HMS Beagle in the Strait of Magellan
Click here to find out more about my House Portraits.
Drawn in about 3°C last weekend. To the north, St Mary’s Lighthouse and wind turbines. Looking south, Cypriot registered cargo ship, Imavere, at anchor.
Repairs are currently being undertaken at Emley Moor transmitting station near Huddersfield, West Yorkshire, and there is a temporary mast alongside the 1971 concrete construction.
This is the tallest freestanding structure in the UK (1,084ft). Also a Grade II listed building.
The antennas broadcast digital radio and TV across the North of England – reaching Hull, Leeds, Sheffield and York, and even Manchester, across the Pennines.
It takes 7 minutes in the lift to get to the top – I hope to take that ride one day.
Woke up with this in my mind’s eye a couple of weeks ago. Not surprising – turbines are on the increase!
Below is a view from East Leeds, looking West – turbines are part of the landscape, near and far. You can also see the new Recycling and Energy Recovery Facility (RERF) building in LS9.
A local bar in Chapel Allerton, LS7.
The fires in my garden were festive, exciting –
Stars and sparks mingling
Woodsmoke a spicy scent, in your hair lingering.
The fires in my fireplace were friendly, inviting –
Warming and mellowing music and wine
The glow in the hearth made your eyes gleam and shine.
But this was a fire that was bitter and frightening
It came uninvited
Rapacious as lightning
Tore through the house, left my life dark and hollow
Its flames soon extinguished
Then long-lasting sorrow.
Weeks of toil, months of mourning, confusion and grieving
And realisation of what is not here –
Then sweep up the ashes and dump what we’re leaving –
We’ll build a new bonfire
The first of the year.
Poem by TW
‘One of the great buildings of the world’
– Sir John Betjeman
A dark and rainy winter afternoon last year. Liverpool Cathedral is a complicated and difficult building to draw. I was in my hometown to show paintings in ‘Who is My Neighbour?’, an exhibition about migration and refugee issues.
My new view walking home, looking across Chapel Allerton Park. I moved across the border to Leeds 7 a few weeks ago. The house is on a very steep hill but so far I’ve only fallen over once. There are lots of dogs and cats here.
A82, 14 mls N of Tyndrum.
It’s dark at 4 o’clock.
The willow tree is adorned with fairy lights
for the festive season.
Cars and people are on the move and
I’m drawing in a doorway.
