Friday 5 March 2010

Walney Lighthouse

It is always interesting to see how an artist sees a place.  Here is the artist and printmaker John Duffin's "Lost At Walney Lighthouse".  I have only found three of his works on postcards, so am on the look out for more.  He paints his home town a lot and this lighthouse is on Walney Island which lies in the Irish Sea attached by a bridge to Barrow in Furness in north west England.

Here is a blue sky view of the same place. It is located on the south end of Walney Island, and when the first lighthouse was build in 1789  it was adjacent to the high water mark, but now as can be seen the current lighthouse built in 1804 it is completely surrounded by land.  The houses used to be occupied by the lighthouse keeper's family but since 2003 it has been unmanned.  Or should I say unwomanned as Peggy Braithwaite (1919-1996) was the first female lighthouse keeper in the country.  She originally moved here with her father and as a teenager became the assistant, it was managed by the family for several generations and Peggy became principal keeper in 1975, until her retirement at the age of 74.  Nothing beats good sea air for keeping you active.



Visit The Best Hearts Are Crunchy who is hosting this week's Postcard Friendship Friday

8 comments:

Beth Niquette said...

I adore lighthouses. There are quite a few on the Oregon coast. These are lovely!

Happy PFF!

MuseSwings said...

Lovely picture - especially the long shadows. Happy PFF!

Mary said...

The painting is fantastic - thanks, MuseSwings for pointing out the shadows. I might have missed them.

Sheila @ A Postcard a Day said...

Beautiful postcards, and I particularly like the first, with the small figure beside the huge lighthouse.

Postcardy said...

I love the artist's view. It almost looks surreal.

Linda said...

Love the yellow ground and the long shadows...melancholy, reminds me of Hopper.

Lyneen said...

Wonderful artists interpretation... I love lighthouses... TFS... PfF

Irene said...

I use to love to paint lighthouses, but I'd really love to see them all up close an personal.