Thanks to @AFowlerPhoto for today’s ‘Wuthering Heights Day’ post and stunning photo of an area which Peter Brook liked to paint. ‘Brontë Moors - Caught out in a Storm’ is a reminder of just how bleak the weather can be in wintertime, the ruined farmhouse offering little shelter.

RT @AFowlerPhoto: Happy Wuthering Heights Day, the joint birthday of Emily Brontë (207) and Kate Bush (67). This is the ruin of Top Withins….

In his later work Peter Brook often chose an unremarkable landscape feature as the subject of a painting. In ‘A Gap in the Wall (2)’ there is little further detail save for a few clumps of grass and it is the ubiquitous border collie peering out at us which attracts our interest.

Suddenly changing weather was always a favourite Peter Brook subject. In ‘Drawing a Silent Pennine Valley’ the ominous purple sky, together with the sheep already sheltering along the wall, suggests the peace is soon to be shattered and that Peter and Shep had best head for home.

Peter Brook’s urban work serves as a record of the disappearing industrial heritage of the West Riding of Yorkshire, very much the case with ‘Old Mill Huddersfield - Sunday - Drawing Early Morning whilst it’s Quiet’, portraying Newsome Mills, virtually destroyed by fire in 2016.

Pennine skies, changing with the seasons, the time of day and of course the weather, appear in many of Peter Brook’s paintings, particularly dramatically in ‘A Real Bronté Sunset’, in which the strong red creates a striking contrast with the dark, silhouetted landscape features.

The subject of ‘Fresh Eggs’ is a winter’s afternoon, dusk already descending on the traditional stone farm, while the patches of snow still catch the last of the light. Typical of Peter Brook, it is the roadside sign to which he draws our attention. (From @ACArtGallery’s archive)

Misty on this week’s early morning dog walks, bringing to mind Peter Brook’s ‘Pennine Farm’, its distant hills still barely visible against a featureless pale sky, creating a sense of almost haunting serenity and stillness. (From James Mason’s collection, sold by Bonhams in 2010)

‘Farm’ is in many ways a typical Peter Brook Pennine snow scene, its long-since abandoned building with a hole in the roof soon to become a ruin. But it is the unexplained presence of the figure behind the wall which comes as something of a surprise. (Sold at Christie’s in 2017)

Peter Brook often employed his man-and-dog motif to convey a sense of isolation and solitude. In ‘Drawing Outside in Winter - On a Rock’ Peter and Shep are the only sign of life as they gaze into the mist across an empty, boulder-strewn landscape. (Sold @Wilson55Auction in 2020)

RT @GroomB: Morley, west Yorkshire. Conflicting road uses.

‘The Pennine Winter’, with its falling snow and solitary sheep sheltering by a wall, is one of those Peter Brook paintings which could well have been bleak, but is lifted by the glow in the sky and the brightly coloured laundry on the line. It must have been a Monday!

RT @ACArtGallery: By popular demand… The Peter Brook Calendar is back!!. We are taking pre-orders now!. Follow the link below to see more d….

Peter Brook’s early work portraying life in the towns of the industrial West Riding is often hard hitting with no hint of nostalgia. In ‘Father Returning Unsteadily for a Late Sunday Dinner’ the child in the doorway adds a poignancy to the painting. (For sale at Carnes Fine Art)

Peter Brook often holidayed in the Scottish Highlands, finding new subjects there. In ‘Well Trained - But a Dog Blissfully Unaware of the Dangers that Lurk on Rannoch Moor’ he paints a landscape very different to his Pennine vistas while retaining his distinctive sense of humour.

RT @ACArtGallery: Our Peter Brook Focus Event starts tomorrow in Skipton . Signed prints, originals and estate approved prints available! h….

The moors above Crimsworth Dean near Hebden Bridge with their abandoned farmhouses were one of Peter Brook’s favourite locations and the subject of many of his paintings, portrayed in a variety of weather conditions as in ‘A Good View of the Pennines (if it weren’t so misty)’.

A trademark atmospheric evening sky is the dominant feature of Peter Brook’s ‘A Later Flight - Passing over the Brontë Moors’, complete with its vapour trails, which on close examination can be seen in several examples of his work, here linking to the title of the painting .

Peter Brook’s beach and coastal scenes are few and far between. Typically, ‘N.E. - Squall’ from 1979, possibly a view of Redcar, portrays not an idyllic summer’s day, but a bout of bad weather, which judging by the colour of the sky looks set to continue for some time.

RT @ACArtGallery: We’re having a Peter Brook Focus Event in Skipton!