Outdoor sketching on the Transpennine Trail for new art commission

Last weekend I made a trip out and about to a section of the Trans Pennine Trail in Didsbury, South Manchester. Sketching en-plein air is so integral to my practise at the moment that the exciting prospect of being newly commissioned by Ultra Marathon running organisation, GB Ultras, is a brilliant opportunity for me.

As part of the winners prizes, not only will four lucky runners receive fabulous heavyweight Gold, Silver and Bronze medals, they will also each get a unique painting based on the route they’ll be running. Another special memento of the race that they’ll have forever.

The Liverpool to Manchester (@L2MUltra) race takes place on the 26th March. Now completely fully booked, they’ve had so much interest from runners across the North West as I believe there’s not many races of this distance happening in the North. They have even more events happening this year including a 200 mile extravaganza where runners can run full width of the North West. Yes the full width!! I know a lot of people who love running not only for its health benefits but also as a way of ‘clearing the decks’. It refreshes their minds as well as their body. For me, painting does this.

Whichever way you want to view the landscape and nature, taking in the Trans Pennine Trail is an exciting route running alongside numerous canals and rivers as well as large urban centres. My home town of Warrington is at the centre of the L2M route making is perfect to carry out my research. Not only do we have the Manchester Ship Canal but the trail also passes by National Trust properties such as Dunham Massey.

I’ll be busy over the next couple of months creating the four new canvas paintings and I’ll keep you posted on my progress.