Postcards from the North Pennines

30 December 2024

Blog by artist, Daniel Weatheritt

My arts sessions for the Land of Lead and Silver project were always going to be focused on illustration but I made a conscious effort to deliver a hybrid project, blurring the lines between traditional and digital creative work. My workshops were very hands-on, incorporating a range of tactile, mixed media materials, and illustration techniques. The illustrations created were collated digitally into a flowing video showcasing the work of all participants through interesting visual overlaps and artwork transitions.

My original image-making concept evolved as the project progressed. I made research trips into the North Pennines, visiting Killhope, Nenthead, Alston, Rookhope arch, Blanchland, Bowlees and High Force waterfall, Stanhope, and Edmundbyers, for photo-documentation to create an image resource. I was fascinated and inspired by the spar boxes displayed at Killhope Mine. I had never seen anything like this before and was very keen to incorporate an element of this into the final presentation of artworks produced.

In workshops at Alston and Nenthead primary schools, the children all enjoyed using new and unfamiliar drawing materials. At Alston school we worked on the theme of letters with each child marking out and painting one of the letters in the name ‘Land of Lead and Silver’. The resulting project titles are beautiful and have a character all of their own, created by children who have not learned to write yet. I also worked with groups of adults at Blanchland Village Hall.

The postcard templates I created gave participants a choice of three scales to work with. The choice was often dictated by the media used – the large template for painting and the small template for dip pen and ink. The wooden text/image resources and the dice/game elements also gave extra layers of visual depth and richness, acting as a launch point for creative ideas and helping participants decide on the visual direction to take.

A bespoke wooden tower was created to house a DVD player, mini projector and cabling. The top of the tower offered an opportunity to create a North Pennines inspired found-object sculpture. This was followed by the creation of a customised wooden spar box style frame. All 160 illustrations were scanned to create the final digital video which was projected as part of the exhibition of arts created through the Land of Lead and Silver project in 2024 at Bowlees Visitor Centre.

The postcards from the North Pennines workshops were part of the 2024 community arts programme for the Land of Lead and Silver project, funded by The National Lottery Heritage Fund and Historic England.

The 2025 community arts bursaries applications will open in January 2025.