It’s a little over a year since I began using A J Ludlow (AJL) watercolours; it seems a good time to give an update on my experiences of using them and to tell you what I’ve done over the year.

I’d been interested in joining Peak District Artisans (PDA) since seeing members’ work in 2018/19. I visited their exhibition in the Stables Shop at Chatsworth House early in 2023 and was impressed by the quality of work and the ‘feel’ of the group; I knew that I wanted to be part of it. A few frantic months followed as I prepared some new work (using AJL watercolours of course) that featured the Peak District landscape for my interview. My application was successful, I joined in June and I’ve taken part in various activities since then; I’m currently part of this year’s group exhibition at Chatsworth (running until March 3^rd) and will take part in other events over the year.

Apart from the exhibitions, I joined some outdoor painting days. The first of these was part of ‘A month of Art’ at Hopton Hall in July, which was held in some lively weather – bright sunshine was interrupted by gusts that blew down easels and filled eyes with dirt. My jars of AJL watercolours attracted interest and the two paintings I produced as a result of the painting day were soon sold. I also made some useful contacts.

July was extremely wet, it’s never good for exhibitors to be loading and unloading their precious cargo in such weather. I took part in my first event with PDA at Haddon Hall Gatehouse in early July, one of the group’s smaller events but a lovely location. Shortly afterwards I exhibited at a non-PDA event, Patchings Festival. The weather had been hot and dry at the festival for a few years, but not so in 2023; my demonstration waterfall painting could have been the rain running off the marquee roof and paintings had to be moved to protect them from rain which made its way into the marquee. A few days later came The Great Dome Art Fair in Buxton with PDA. After a ‘smashing’ preview night when one of my easels collapsed, leaving the glass from a large painting in thousands of pieces, things could only improve. The event gave me a new audience and some nice sales.

In September I gave a demonstration on painting waterfalls in watercolour to an art group in Chester, a long drive but a great welcome and a very enjoyable session.

The Autumn Art Fair at Darley Dale was another PDA event which took place during atrociously wet weather. A highlight of this event was meeting a collector of my work who I’d never met before, it was good to meet the buyer and have a chat.

In early December the last PDA event of the year was held at The Gasworks in Sudbury; this was a new venue, recently refurbished. We had a change of weather for this! Light snow was forecast but 4” snow had to be cleared before I could set off for Sudbury. Fortunately, the travelling was trouble free, there was a little less snow at the venue and there was a good number of visitors, especially locals enjoying a walk in the snow.

Over the summer and autumn I went out on several sketching and painting days with other artists, enjoying the best of the British weather, experiencing everything from heatwaves to downpours, high winds and frost. I’ve little experience in painting outdoors away from home and only produced scribbles and sketches on the day, but the outings were very useful, and the sheer relaxation of being outdoors, absorbing nature, getting sun/wind-burned (I must remember to take my sunhat from my bag) or very cold, have all been enjoyable (yes, really!).

The much-needed end of year rest didn’t happen as I tried to catch up on admin tasks, proposals and plans, work that would ideally have been completed in 2023. I’m looking forward to be able to spend much more of my time painting over the coming months.

I produced three small paintings over Christmas and New Year; “Minninglow”, “Burbage Brook at Padley Gorge” and “Burbage Bridge” (shown in the figures below).

Over Christmas I emptied my first pot of AJL watercolour (Ultramarine Blue, of course), there was no struggling to squeeze the last paint from a tube, I just added a little water to the pot and used every last drop! In the spring blog I listed the colours that I was trying. People who have seen me using AJL paints have asked which 6 colours form my basic palette. Although I don’t use many colours I struggle to reduce the number to just 6; this is largely down to the fact that all the AJL colours that I use are single pigment, whereas in my old brand two of the colours I used often were each a mix of three pigments. My six most used colours in landscape painting are probably Ultramarine Blue, Prussian Blue or Phthalo Blue (GS), Transparent Iron Oxide Yellow, Azomethine Green, Burnt Umber or Burnt Sienna, Quinacridone Rose, I use Transparent Iron Oxide Red less often but love its clean fresh colour. I’ve prepared a palette using only these colours in readiness for my next outdoor painting day and will be interested to see if I’ve chosen well.

I added Raw Sienna and Burnt Sienna to my initial selection of colours in order to compare them with the Transparent Iron Oxide Yellow and Transparent Iron Oxide Red. I’ve used the Raw Sienna very little because I just love the Transparent Iron Oxide Yellow but I think I still need Raw Sienna. I use the Burnt Sienna quite often, it’s a useful red/brown on its own and when I need something warmer than Burnt Umber. I’m happy with the handling characteristics of them all.

When I began using AJL watercolours I decided that I would use only this brand for a year before making a decision about whether to continue; I’m happy to say that I will continue.

What Next?

I’m currently working on Chatsworth themes, there’s a lot to inspire with the house, the huge estate, architecture, sculptures etc, but the deer and the weir appeal, so I’ll explore those subjects to begin with and aim to include more of the Peak District landscape as we move through the year.

Other News

My book has now sold out with the publisher but I still have some signed copies for sale.

Here are some of the paintings produced over the last few months with A J Ludlow Professional watercolours:

Figure 1: "Lumsdale Revisited", a watercolour painting by Lesley Linley.



Figure 2: "Sowter Stone, Chatsworth", a watercolour painting by Lesley Linley.



Figure 3: "Minninglow", a watercolour painting by Lesley Linley.



Figure 4: "Burbage Brook at Padley Gorge", a watercolour painting by Lesley Linley.



Figure 5: "Burbage Bridge", a watercolour painting by Lesley Linley.



Figure 6, 7 and 8: "Burbage 1, 2 and 3", three watercolour paintings by Lesley Linley.

Figure 9: "Cat", a watercolour painting by Lesley Linley.