Hockney paints the sky

As part of the City of Culture 2025, David Hockney's paintings were brought to life in a short but spectacular show featuring 600 illuminated drones above Saltaire. Painting the Sky was created by Skymagic, the Leeds-based drone light show pioneers. Roberts Park was packed with people who came along to see it. I'm afraid my photos aren't all that great, as I was just using my phone. (It was drizzling and I decided it was going to be too much effort to navigate the crowds and the dark with my camera and a tripod, plus I wasn't confident the photos would be all that much better!)

You can get the general idea anyway, and hopefully recognise most of the artworks. 'Mr and Mrs Clark and Percy' (1971) is one of Hockney's earlier paintings, depicting his friends, the fashion designers Ossie Clark and Celia Birtwell and their cat. The two halves were shown separately so I've joined them up a bit here. 

'The Blue Guitar' is one of a series of twenty etchings Hockney made in 1976-77, inspired by a poem by Wallace Stevens, which references a Picasso work: 'The Old Guitarist'. 

There was a recreation of a picture of his dachshunds, Stanley and Boodgie, whom he painted in the 1990s as a way of dealing with his grief over the loss of a friend. There was also a picture of one of the dogs that is used as the logo in Salts Diner, in Salts Mill on everything from plates to napkins to the T shirts worn by the staff. 

I've included a couple of short video clips here too, as they give more of a sense of how the drone light show played out. (I hope you can see them.) The first is one of Hockney's swimming pool paintings: Portrait of an Artist ( Pool with Two Figures) from 1972. 

The second is taken from an iPad video: 'Remember you cannot look at the sun or death for very long', which he made during lockdown in 2021.

 

Meanwhile

Meanwhile, in Saltaire, our impossibly beautiful autumn continued... 

This was a week or so ago and the leaves are much sparser now, after some heavy rain and wind. 

No words needed

Looking for the wood among the trees

I enjoyed the glimpses of gold among the dark, straight trunks in the larch woodland on the hillside, though it would have been even better with a bit more sunlight. Larches are one of our few deciduous conifers in the UK.

Along the Dalesway

The Dales Way long distance footpath skirts the Scargill estate, on its way from Ilkley to Bowness in the Lake District. It makes for a good walk up the hillside, along a decent track at this point. 

Despite the drizzle, it was good to keep stopping to look back - gave me a breather too, as the track is quite steep here. You can literally see the weather coming at you along the valley!

Eventually the track levels out onto a flattish ridge, and here the views are broader as the valley opens out to the south. You can perhaps make out the overhang of Kilnsey Crag in the middle distance of the picture below.  An outcrop of limestone, it's a magnet for climbers. 

Up here there's also a small patch of limestone pavement, its deep fissures holding ferns and mosses. I always feel like I'm back in my school geography lessons when I'm up here. I can hear my teacher explaining about 'clints and grikes', and teaching us how contours on maps work, by use of a nifty plasticine 'hill' in a tub that she filled up with water, stopping every inch to gouge a contour line in the 'hill'.  

Scargill's gardens

Scargill's gardens are lovingly tended by the resident estate team, assisted by many volunteers who often come to stay as 'working friends'. The gardens around the buildings have wonderful views up and down the valley and across the fields. Tucked away in a corner is the walled garden. Once, I think, the kitchen garden when the main house was a family home, it's now a quiet place to sit, reflect and drink in the peace of the surroundings. 

Despite the late season, there were patches of colour: cyclamen tucked around tree roots; heathers in containers on the terrace;

a variety of skimmia (I think) with leaves prettily edged in pink; waxy hellebore flowers 

and some late-flowering fuchsia, vibrant even in the drizzle.  

Autumn leaves were falling but there were still enough on the branches to shimmer in the occasional bursts of sunshine. 

Autumn is a wonderful season in the Yorkshire Dales and Scargill is a beautiful place to lap it all up. 

In Kettlewell village

As you approach Kettlewell village from the Grassington direction, the road crosses a wide bridge across the River Wharfe. Although up here in the dale it's quite a 'young' river, it nevertheless meanders broad and slow through the flat-bottomed valley, a textbook U-shaped valley gouged out by glaciers over 10,000 years ago. 

I've taken lots of photos in Kettlewell over the years and for some reason didn't feel that inspired on this latest visit. I did enjoy this vibrant red cotoneaster set against the blue paintwork and stone. It's been an amazing year for autumn fruit of all kinds. 

Kettlewell has a pretty church, St Mary's, which was open to visitors. It's not that old (1885) but stands on the site of an earlier church. 

A brief burst of sunshine outside cast attractive shards of colour onto the stonework from the stained glass windows. I love that effect. 

Many of the windows in the church are memorials, as above. That below is one of a pair that were relocated from the village's Methodist church when it closed in 1986. It shows 'The Good Shepherd', an appropriate image in this farming valley full of sheep. 

Elsewhere in the village, I was drawn to document the 'vintage' garage. I don't think Burmah petrol actually exists any more, taken over by BP around 2000. It looks like you can still buy petrol and diesel of some kind here, which I'm sure is welcomed by residents although there's a rather more modern fuel outlet in nearby Threshfield.  

Walking down to Kettlewell

I spent a few days recently at Scargill, the Christian community in Kettlewell, in Upper Wharfedale. It's one of my favourite locations. I'd hoped for good weather to make the most of the autumn scenery but, apart from a few brief lulls, it was dull, damp and rather dismal. On one slightly brighter day, I had a brisk walk down the lane to Kettlewell village, enjoying the brief glimpses of light on the far fells. 

Long time readers of my blog may remember my account of a ramble up that steep, walled track on the hillside that you can see in the photo below. (See HERE) It was a rather hot day when I did that, rather a contrast to the chill and damp of a few days ago. It's all so beautiful though, whatever the weather. 

There aren't as many stone barns in Wharfedale as in some of the other Yorkshire Dales but they still punctuate the fields, as of course do the many dry stone walls. 

Flaky

Perhaps it's a bit 'flaky' but I can occasionally be found taking multiple photos of an old door or metal panel, when I come across one on my walks. The peeling paint and rusty marks strike me as really quite exciting and interesting. These patterns are far too strong to be useable as a texture on another picture, I feel, yet the colours and shapes still attracted me. 

BD: is LIT #2

More photos from BD: is LIT, the light show in Bradford. City Hall was bathed in a moving tapestry of colour: 'Worstedopolis' by Ronan Devlin, which celebrated Bradford's textile heritage. 

Elsewhere, 'Eternal Ensemble' (ONYVA studio) had four screens showing ethereal projections of a cellist, with accompanying music - 'music as living light'. It was rather beautiful (even though deaf old me couldn't hear the music!)

My own favourite was 'Rainforest Butterflies' by Anne Bennett. Inspired by the iridescent blue morpho tropical butterfly, they shimmered among the trees in Norfolk Gardens. Such a gorgeous blue, they looked quite real and were rather beautiful.

'Phenix' by Julien Menzel was also rather delightful, 'rising in light and flame' with ever changing colours from cool to warm and back again. It looked amazing set against the back drop of one of Bradford's Victorian jewels, St Georges Hall, attractively floodlit. Perhaps it's a good metaphor for our city, which is striving to 'rise again'.