The Lakeland Sketchbooks Project

The five volumes of Lakeland Sketchbooks surely constitute one of the finest achievements of Alfred Wainwright as an artist. Published between 1968 and 1973, many of the scenes depicted are based on photographs he had taken years previously.



The aim of this Wainwright Society project was to celebrate AW’s fine artistic achievement, and to create a contemporary record of the 400 scenes that he drew with such a fine touch. All members of the Society were invited to take part in the project. All they had to do was to find the location of any of the drawings, and take a photograph of the scene depicted by Wainwright in his drawing.

• click here to visit A Lakeland Sketchbook index page
• click here to visit A Second Lakeland Sketchbook index page
• click here to visit A Third Lakeland Sketchbook index page
• click here to visit A Fourth Lakeland Sketchbook index page
• click here to visit A Fifth Lakeland Sketchbook index page
  

The books themselves contain diagrams which help in finding the viewpoints.  This section of the website shows the original drawings, against which are set the members’ modern photographs which best capture the spirit of the original artwork. Now completed, the end product is a reference archive of all the drawings in the Lakeland Sketchbooks, with comparison photographs to identify the changes which may have taken place to the landscape or buildings in the subsequent years.

This was not a competition. There was no entry fee and no prizes. It was great fun to do - a bit like a treasure hunt in the case of some drawings - and members found, hopefully, the thrill of seeing their work as part of the archive, as well as learning more about AW’s skill as an artist: how carefully his pictures are composed, with clever use of viewpoints and interesting foregrounds.

The Society gives special thanks to The Estate of A. Wainwright and White Lion Publishing, with whose kind permission the sketches were reproduced.

Please remember that copyright rests with The Estate of A. Wainwright. Only members of The Wainwright Society were allowed to print a copy of sketches, and only for the purpose of participating in this project. Any other copying will be a breach of copyright.