Me and my Art
Hi. I am Stuart Lake. I live in Cheshire, not far from the River Mersey. To me, the river has an ever-changing, raw natural beauty and power that I find exeptional and inspirational. Down by the river feels like my spiritual home. I have a love for being near water deep within me. It is even in my name!
The massive scale of the river, its infrastructure, and the ship canal that runs by it is mind blowing. At night, the factory, buildings and road lights dance, shimmer, and reflect off the waters surface. Allthough I am very green, and I do love to see an unspoilt natural scene, I find that less industrial and man-made countryside and esturies can look somewhat bland and dull in comparison, especially after dark.
With the rivers large tidal range here, up to 10 meters or 30 feet on a spring tide, the changes can be huge, even within a short time. The strength of the water flow is often exhilarating and intimidating when you are up close and personel. There are tidal bores and huge, allmost unimaginable shifts in sand bars and channels on bigger tides. I find the river and its power just awesome.
I love to draw portraits as well as the river and landscapes. Allthough portraits are supposed to be the highest challenge for an artist, and the hardest thing to make look correct, I personally feel that the Silver Jubilee Bridge is probably more of a challenge. The arched geometrical shape of its top and its sheer size and perspective is somewhat mind bending to paint. This may well be the reason I have no hair left!
I am self taught as an artist. It has been a passion for me on and off throughout most of my life. Recently I have had some health and mobility issues after having type 1 diabetes for over 40 years. This has thankfully given me more time to paint.
I mostly paint with soft pastels and pastel pencils. I use UNISON COLOUR Handmade soft patels. These are UK made and beautiful to use. I have STABILO CarbOthello and CARAN D'ACHE pastel pencils for detail work. I like to use Mi-Teintes Touch patel paper. The paper is made from crushed pumice and velvet and takes the powdered pigments of pastels colours very well indeed. While these items may not all be the most reasonably priced, the quality is very high. All these items come highly recomended by myself and other artists.
If you have any enquiries, or if you have any issues with the functionality of this website please email myself at stu@stuartlake.co.uk