Don MacRaild

Historian • Professor • LMU • Hon. positions at @HCAatEdinburgh • @UUHistory | Art lover & amateur dabbler | #FirstGen | OA book:

[Don MacRaild @DMMacRaild]

All followers!
This book is now published free for Kindle on Amazon and as a PDF on the @AnthemPress website (Click "Open Access")
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Book Link: https://t.co/h2rrGmHOTo

[The Pennine Painter @PennineThe]

The moors above Crimsworth Dean near Hebden Bridge provided the inspiration for many of Peter Brook’s paintings. Best known is probably ‘Lingering’, in which Peter in the distance next to the gate is so entranced by the spectacular panorama that he has become separated from Shep.

[Don MacRaild @DMMacRaild]

@Dr_DeanAllen And after the heartbreak of losing out on the automatic place in the last seconds against York. Great comeback from that!

[The Pennine Painter @PennineThe]

‘Snow on the Pennine Hills above Holmfirth’ was something with which Peter Brook was only too familiar. An accomplished fell runner, he was a member of the Holmfirth Harriers, accompanying them on Sunday morning runs, whatever the weather. (Sold by Lacey, Scott & Knight in 2022)

[The Pennine Painter @PennineThe]

Peter Brook was a keen observer of changes in the weather, often dependent upon the season or time of day. In ‘Slow Thaw - Drawing Outside’ the delicate evening sky and patches of green as the grass breaks through the snow soften what might otherwise have been a bleaker scene.

[The Pennine Painter @PennineThe]

A border collie appears in most of Peter Brook’s later work, as an integral part of the man-and-dog motif or peeping underneath a farmyard door. In ‘Fast & Loose - In the Dales’ we see Shep, readily recognisable from his distinctive chevron markings, and a less fortunate canine.

[The Pennine Painter @PennineThe]

‘Early One Morning in May’ is one of Peter Brook’s most whimsical paintings. The little lamb peers through the gate and into the mist, almost as if it is looking for the bull, whose presence is indicated by the notice on the top of the gate. (Sold at Tennants Auctioneers in 2019)

[Achill Heinrich Böll @BollAchill]

A full house for the opening evening of the Heinrich Boll 2026 festival in Dugort, Achill Island
https://t.co/uOwivQJUKI

[The Pennine Painter @PennineThe]

With the continuing warm and sunny weather ‘A Long Hot Summer - In the Pennines’ is perhaps on its way. Flight Hill Farm in the Upper Holme Valley was one of Peter Brook’s favourite locations, which he painted often at all times of the year. (Sold at Tennants Auctioneers in 2023)

[The Pennine Painter @PennineThe]

Peter Brook painted his favourite locations on multiple occasions, portraying the weather conditions prevailing at the time. In ‘After a Long Grey Day in the Valley the Sun Comes Out’ he captures the evening light over the distinctive outline of Cheese Gate Nab near Holmfirth.

[The Pennine Painter @PennineThe]

‘Out on Monday with a View of Stoodley Pike’, from 2000, is one of Peter Brook’s best known later works. The eye is drawn to the prominent hilltop monument, silhouetted against the setting sun, while the easy-to-miss line of washing lower down links to the title of the painting.

[Visit Galway @visit_galway]

Just basking in the glorious sunshine... 🦈 ☀️

📸 Roundstone Bay and Islands Boat Tours
📍 Roundstone, Connemara

#BaskingShark #Roundstone #Connemara #Galway #Ireland

[The Pennine Painter @PennineThe]

With warm weather forecast for the next few days here’s Peter Brook’s ‘A Hot Spring’. The low light is indicative of an evening scene, while the palette, very different from that seen in his winter work, suggests the heat of the day lingers on. (Exhibited @ACArtGallery in 2021)

[The Pennine Painter @PennineThe]

‘Right by the M62 in the Pennines - Thinking about a 17th Century Farmhouse with a 21st Century Roof - Eddie Stobart Heading West Passing the Little House on the Prairie’ is a classic Peter Brook title, referring to the farmhouse now famously ‘stranded’ between the carriageways.

[Don MacRaild @DMMacRaild]

@dgleesonhistory Thanks, Dave, very kind of you! “The End of Outrage: Post-Famine Adjustment in Rural Ireland”by Breandán Mac Suibhne—outstanding book on the subject:
https://t.co/inVDFigUVY

[The Pennine Painter @PennineThe]

Peter Brook’s early social realist work can be surprisingly hard hitting. In ‘Father Returning Unsteadily for a late Sunday Dinner’ there’s no hint of nostalgia as the inebriated figure staggers down the road while a little girl waits with her doll. (For sale at Carnes Fine Art)

[Brian Groom @GroomB]

Road to Caolas, Outer Hebrides, 2023, painting by Dale Bissland, Scottish artist.

[The Pennine Painter @PennineThe]

Underlying much of Peter Brook’s work was his belief that the ordinary was interesting. In ‘Making a Careful Drawing of that Group of Trees by the Gateposts and it’s Quite Cold’ he draws our attention to the location of what could be considered an unremarkable landscape feature.

[The Pennine Painter @PennineThe]

‘A Lane to an Empty Farm’ is a classic Peter Brook composition, the road with its tyre tracks in the snow and flanking walls and telegraph poles leading the eye past the abandoned building to the distant hillside with its distinctive field pattern just visible through the mist.

[The Pennine Painter @PennineThe]

Brontë country was one of Peter Brook’s favourite subjects on account of both its rugged landscape and famous literary connections. In ‘On the Way to Wuthering Heights with the Sun in my Eyes’ the play of light upon the snow adds a further dimension. (Calderdale Museums Service)

[The Pennine Painter @PennineThe]

‘Looking at Silence’ is one of Peter Brook’s more serious paintings. With no hint of humour it portrays the artist’s personal response to the solitude of a remote Pennine valley in winter with mist enveloping the landscape and creating a sense of isolation and other-worldliness.