NORTHERN HORIZONS

Kristan Baggaley N O R T H E R N H O R I Z O N S

KRISTAN BAGGALEY

He knows the land so well that the moors in all their guises have become a metaphor for intimations of hope and harmony that are only to be found in nature; he believes that in painting the familiar subject matter, the inessential falls away leaving the essential.

The Derbyshire Peak District makes you constantly aware of the landscape and the effects that the weather has on it. You can find yourself captivated by the sun on the mist or enthralled by a storm sweeping across distant moors and edges. It is an extraordinary environment, rich in culture and history and it can often appear as primordial, delivering a powerful visual and psychological impact.

The surface of the work is all-important and he drags and cuts the material around the canvas, using forks and combs to plough the paint as a farmer may work his fields. In his technique he adds fine sand to the oil paint, which he applies with large palette knives and decorator’s brushes.

Sketchbook work is all-important when considering composition and colour. Indian ink and thick graphite pencils are used in this preparatory work and the movement and action of mark making are gestures learnt for the subsequent canvas work. Kristan Baggaley believes that without a strong spiritual connection and feeling for his subject matter the work could never effectively communicate to an audience.

Kristan Baggaley has made the depiction of this extraordinary landscape his own, with his large paintings of sweeping vistas and iconic landmarks. All of Kristan Baggaley’s paintings are of specific locations, but it is the intense and unique sense of place that is conveyed, rather than any attempt to convey the purely scenic. He achieves a rich atmospheric depth in his work responding to a finely defined topography of the Peak District. He has depicted the vistas, weather conditions, seasonal colours and the extraordinary vistas of the land and distant horizons.

‘For this collection of paintings my starting point has been to consider over the 25years I have lived on the border of the Dark Peak District, what are the places and views that are special to me and why. I live within 5 miles of Stanage Edge, Carl Wark and Burbage Moor and these are areas I cycle to every week to paint and walk. Therefore, it is these locations I have a particular knowledge of in all seasons and weathers and as such paintings of them prodominate in the exhibition. From my studio in Sheffield the climb by bike is all up hill to Burbage Moor and the view that greats me is the moorland opening up with the eastern end of Stanage Edge in the distance and Kinder Scout on the horizon. Arriving and leaving the moor have been very uplifting times in my life particularly when something sublime is happening and I have attempted to express something of the feeling of these moments in the Burbage Moor Series of paintings.

Kristan studied Fine Art in Nottingham and Birmingham before moving back to Sheffield, drawn back by the open landscape of the Dark Peak, with which his work is often synonymous. His heavily textured paintings of the moors and grit-stone edges in all seasons and weather describe and explore the fall of light, cloud and shadows over immense distances.

Although his paintings are usually specific to particular places in the landscape, abstracted visionary qualities become uppermost. The layered depths in these landscapes correspond to the memory and association connected with familiar places. He knows the land so well that the moors in all their guises have become a metaphor for intimations of hope and harmony that are only to be found in nature; he believes that in painting the familiar subject matter, the inessential falls away leaving the essential.

The contrast between the very wet spring and the very dry summer we experienced this year has also become an important part of the exhibition. The dryness in the summer was highlighted by the scorched fields on Mam Tor and the Derwent Valley and the wet period on the peat bogs of the open moorlands.’

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Kristan Baggaley N O R T H E R N H O R I Z O N S

Spring Ac ross the Hope Valle y 120cm x 60cm ÂŁ1550

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The Hope Valley looks brilliant in spring when the fields and trees are a rich green after a sharp shower. This time signals that winter is finally over and that long days and summer sun are just around the corner

Kristan Baggaley N O R T H E R N H O R I Z O N S

Rocks in Shadow, Stanage Edge 50cm x 40cm ÂŁ750

Facing page

Burbage Moor is the nearest moorland to where I live, so I visit it several times a week. I have enjoyed studying the reflective quality of the ponds and bogs on the moor, especially where footpaths traverse them

This view of Stanage Edge is one of my favourites, particularly later in the day when the rocks are in shadow and the scale of the escarpment is evident

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Kristan Baggaley N O R T H E R N H O R I Z O N S

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Peat Bog, Burbage Moor

120 cm x 180cm

£1960

Kristan Baggaley N O R T H E R N H O R I Z O N S

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Late Summe r, Stanage Edge

150cm x 100cm

£2750

Kristan Baggaley N O R T H E R N H O R I Z O N S

When the ground is saturated after heavy rain is one of my favourite times on Stanage Edge as on this foot path off the Ringinglow Road that leads to the southern start of the escarpment.

Rain all Night, Footpath to Stanage Edge 60cm x 60cm ÂŁ975

Distant Shower across the Longshaw Estate 100cm x 30cm

ÂŁ875

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Kristan Baggaley N O R T H E R N H O R I Z O N S

8 Clouds Approaching from the West

150cm x 100cm

ÂŁ2750

Kristan Baggaley N O R T H E R N H O R I Z O N S

Facing page

The late summer flowering of the heather on Burbage Moor is a time I look forward to. The crimson and mauve transforms the landscape and the honey like fragrance of the flowers fills the air adding to the sense of joy.

Winter, Higger Tor and Carl Wark in Evening Shadow 100cm 100cm ÂŁ1960

When cast in shadow the profiles of Carl Wark and Higgar Tor look particularly noble and this is my favourite time to

paint them.

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Kristan Baggaley N O R T H E R N H O R I Z O N S

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Shower across Stanage Edge

150cm x 100cm

£2750

Kristan Baggaley N O R T H E R N H O R I Z O N S

Facing page

Some of my lasting memories of Stanage Edge were created during showers when rain water runs down my face reinforcing my contact with the environment and the power of the elements.

Winter Rain across Stanage 60cm x 45cm

ÂŁ800

When rain from the west falls on Stanage Edge it can be very exhilarating, as the colours of the vegetation become more pronounced and a glossy lustre is added to the tones of the rocks’

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Kristan Baggaley N O R T H E R N H O R I Z O N S

Sunlight and Shower, Stanage Edge 100cm x 30cm ÂŁ875

When the gritstone of Stanage Edge is wet it can appear so dark and hard, particularly when contrasted with sharp sunlight enhancing its exalted qualities.

Clearing Mist, Stanage Edge 100cm x 30cm ÂŁ875

Autumn is the time of fogs and mist and to experience the craggy cliffs of Stanage disapearing into the distant mists is always a magical

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Kristan Baggaley N O R T H E R N H O R I Z O N S

Autumn Shower, Stanage Edge 100cm x 50cm

ÂŁ1200

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The autumn colours on Stanage Edge is a time of the year I look forward to. When the bracken has turned a rusty brown and the grasses shimmer a golden hue. The grit stone often seems to reflect these colours at this special time of the year.

Kristan Baggaley N O R T H E R N H O R I Z O N S

In the late summer the colours on Burbage Moor can be incredibly vibrant as the last of the flowering heather shares the moorland with the golden hues of the early autumn grasses and bracken.

Early Autumn, Stanage Edge 90cm x 60cm ÂŁ1250 14

Kristan Baggaley N O R T H E R N H O R I Z O N S

Building Cloud above Bamford Moor 100cm x 70cm ÂŁ1250

Bamford Moor is one of the most isolated areas I visit. This view in early Autumn captures the moments before low cloud shrouds the moor and stillness and mist encloses all around you.

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Kristan Baggaley N O R T H E R N H O R I Z O N S

The distincitive forms of Carl Wark and Higgar Tor are unusual features with their flat table top summits. The acsent of the hills often feels like climbing an ancient temple with the reward of stunning views across the Longshaw Estate and Hope Valley.

First Light, Early Autumn, Carl Wark and Higgar Tor 100cm x 100cm

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ÂŁ1960

Kristan Baggaley N O R T H E R N H O R I Z O N S

The Ridge footpath from Mam Tor to Lose Hill is one of the most uplifting routes in the High Peak area. There are stunning views of Edale and Kinder Scout on one side and Castleton and the Hope Valley on the other.

The Ridge F ootpath, Mam Tor 100cm x 100cm ÂŁ1960

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Kristan Baggaley N O R T H E R N H O R I Z O N S

The landslips around Mam Tor have created a very different landscape to other areas of the Peak District. The land movements sometimes seem to give the impression of land pouring down the slopes.

This painting was created as the drought continued for several weeks in the summer.

Summer Drought, Mam Tor 100cm x 100cm

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ÂŁ1960

Kristan Baggaley N O R T H E R N H O R I Z O N S “End of the Day Series”.

The following paintings all look west along the Ringinglow Road as it crosses Burbage Moor. The pieces have been inspired by my arrival on the moor having cycled from Sheffield and the sense of wonder at the vast space opening up before me after the long climb from the city. I have experienced hundreds of sunsets on the moor and it is my on going sense of awe at the unfolding beauty which has inspired these paintings.

Clearing Shower at Sunset, Burbage Moor 50cm x 50cm

£750

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End of the Day, Burbage Moor 60cm x 60cm

£975

Kristan Baggaley N O R T H E R N H O R I Z O N S

Settin Sun Burbage Moor 100cm x 100cm

ÂŁ1960

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Kristan Baggaley N O R T H E R N H O R I Z O N S

Sunset and Vapour Trails, Burbage Moor 100cm x 100cm

ÂŁ1960

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Kristan Baggaley N O R T H E R N H O R I Z O N S

Sunset, Burbage Moor 100cm x 100cm

ÂŁ1960

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Kristan Baggaley N O R T H E R N H O R I Z O N S

Like most successful artists, Kristan relies heavily on his drawings, producing numerous sketchbooks during the course of the year. However, they are not simply collections of drawings, but rather journals capturing fleeting images, memories, ideas, sometimes almost too tentative to depict. These studies, sketches, washes and notations inform the large studio paintings..

Kristan has a large studio in Sheffield which is divided into two parts.

The areas reflect his approach to painting, combining the physicality of the painting process with the more reflective and medative quality of evolving the painting from concept to it’s independant manifestation.

The work starts in the chaotic environment of the painting studio, referencing preliminary sketches and applied with a variety of tools.

The dynamism of the process can be seen from the accretions of paint which have accumulated against his painting wall. Eventually, the paintings are taken to the other part of the studio, where they are hung on white walls in diffused northern light. If they have become resolved, they move out of the studio into the world. If not, they go back into the creative cauldron, until resolution or destruction occurs.

Both of these processes occur against a background of music. Most often, this is the ethereal work of Arvo Part.

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Kristan Baggaley N O R T H E R N H O R I Z O N S

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