Modern expressionist style oil painting on canvas by Julia Odell
A walk through Manor Garth Park to Titty Bottle Park on the river Wharfe, Otley, West Yorkshire. Modern expressionist style oil painting on canvas. 70 x 55 cms.
Otley was covered in a blanket of snow on 7th January 2010 so i couldn’t resist getting my camera out and going for a walk. Manor Garth Park is only a stones throw from my house. The park runs alongside the river Wharfe and if you follow the path through, and across the road, you enter TittyBottle Park (Pronounced as two words.. Titty Bottle). Yes, as the title suggests, it gained its name during Victorian times when wet nurses would take infants to the park for their daily exercise. I’m currently doing a painting of TittyBottle and will explain more about that when i upload it. 
If you turn left at the park end and walk across the bridge you’ll enter Wharfe Meadows Park. I suppose its where 3 parks meet.
This painting is set at the bottom of Manor Garth Park where the snow lay six inches deep and the river had begun to freeze because the temperature had been so bitterly cold for so many days. Being a snow lover I donned my most appropriate apparel and stepped out to brave the elements!
I stopped at the end of the park and read the information board. Its amazing how much history is buried under the snow! In 1968 archaeologists excavated some ruins in the park and found a medieval manor house that had belonged to the Archbishops of York – and dates to the Norman conquest. Otley is much older of course and was given to the archbishops in the 8th century. It was a religious center of the time. In the 13th century Walter De Gray held the post of Archbishop and stayed at the manor. He was also Chancellor of England and was present at Runnymede for the signing of the Magna Carta. Amazing what is buried beneath that view! I think they are to the right of the main building in my painting.
I decided, in this painting, to add a bit more colour. In a way its turned out a lot like a expressionist cartoon. Well, why can’t i have a bit of fun with paint? 
I used Daler Rowney oils and made a small sketch first using artists quality Cryla acrylics. I really enjoy the oil like qualities of Cryla. They are thick and buttery and do actually act like an oil paint so i can lay up a sketch in the same way as an oil painting. I’ve tried 3 other brands of acrylic.. System 3, AV and System 3D and none have the same ‘thicker than clotted cream’ buttery qualities as the Daler Rowney ‘Heavy Body’ Cryla range.
Btw, its is for sale!
Julia
You can view this, and more paintings, in my gallery here
