Heysham artist's exhibition held in Keswick gallery

Inspired by the television programme – Britain’s Favourite Walks: Top 100 – the Heysham-based fine artist has chosen the top 10 to paint and she’s walked most of them too.

The results can be seen in her latest exhibition – Britain’s Favourite Walks: Top 10 – which runs at the Northern Lights Gallery, in Keswick, from May 28-July 4. Five of the most popular walks are in the Lake District including the top spot taken by Helvellyn Patricia paid her first visit to this mountain on a beautiful April day and was rewarded with a panoramic view.

“I’ve wanted to visit Helvellyn for ages and was really lucky that I chose to walk up on a day when the view was so clear that I could see for miles,” said Patricia, a professional artist since 1980.

“ I drew some composition studies in my sketchbook and took photographs to remind me of the light and colours.”

Helvellyn has now become Patricia’s favourite walk thanks to its fabulous views and she has created five different versions of the mountain in a variety of media including oils, handmade prints, and pen and wash.Catbells, Scafell Pike, Buttermere and Coniston are the other Lakes walks which Patricia has captured on canvas along with Snowdon and Tryfan in Wales; Malham Cove in North Yorkshire; Dunstanburgh in Northumbria, and Mam Tor in the Peak District.

Patricia completed most of these walks herself but when lockdown scuppered plans to visit those furthest away from her Heysham home, she relied on friends and relatives to send photographs.

Her dream is to hire a camper van and travel the country to paint the other 90 nation’s favourite walks.

“This exhibition is a celebration of my love of nature and this year it has taken on extra significance because walking in the great outdoors has become such a treasured experience for people,” said Patricia. Lockdown has enabled Patricia to be more experimental and use new materials including inks and vintage watercolours seen in this latest collection which encompasses the whole process.

Patricia has been a permanent exhibitor at the Northern Lights Gallery since 2010 but this will be her first solo exhibition there.

Although North Lancashire has been Patricia’s home for 40 years, she was born in Australia and most of her childhood was spent in South Yorkshire. She completed a foundation course in Doncaster before studying at Preston Polytechnic and graduated in 1980. For more than 20 years, Patricia taught at Lancaster and Morecambe College, Lancaster Adult College and Alston Hall in Longridge.

Her painting of Morecambe Bay – Approaching Storm – is in the House of Lords parliamentary art collection and her depiction of Kirkby Lonsdale’s sweet shop hangs in Cadbury’s HQ. Patricia’s paintings are displayed in galleries locally and nationally and some have homes in New Zealand, Australia and America.

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