David Baker - More Snow to Come (Hil Farm Near Buxton Derbyshire 2003) Art for sale.

Seller Comments...

One of a series of works based on the high upland farms of the Derbyshire Peak District, a place of great solitude and with a climate entirely alien to those who live in the pretty Peak villages clustered in the valleys below. Life up here is very hard in the winter for the dwindling number of hill farmers still continuing the traditional farming with wide ranging and extremely hardy fell sheep along with a few cattle. Wind is the chief element of life up here and this piece shows clear evidence of 'snow blow', where the snow in the fields in the foreground has been blown off the land onto the fields behind. Snow drifting is the real enemy of farmer and livestock alike under such conditions. It also accounds for the many isolated hilltop stands of trees, such as the one shown here, planted by past generations of farmers as protection for their farms and their livestock. Such clumps are visible across all the farmed areas of the central plateau and high peaks of Derbyshire and have become a beautiful signature of man's hand on the landscpe along with miles of crumbling stone walls - also on view here.