As far as coastlines go, Silverdale's in North-West Lancashire is unique insofar as it lies at the innermost point of the great 'inner-sea' that is Morecambe Bay and consists of many hidden coves and pebbled beaches which continue for miles over the border into Cumbria. In the past week the temperature has risen to as high as twenty-degrees due to warm air drifting up from the hot south. During this very warm spell I've made a number of visits to a specific point along this coast to one of the biggest coves, also undertaking my first Cross-Bay walk of the year in between visits, to do some location drawing. At the time of my first few visits some of the highest spring tides of the year occurred around midday, before they dropped again in time for my bay walk when the neap tides arrived to make the cross safer.

The cove I visited is known to some people - notably rock climbers - as Jack Scout Cove. This is because it is situated next to the National Trust land named Jack Scout, which offers some of the best views of the bay. But the proper name for what is one of the biggest coves in the area is Cow's Mouth. In centuries gone by it was used as an access point for cattle drovers who would have made their way across the sands and salt marsh up to Gibraltar Farm. And because this is now a privately-owned caravan park and campsite, accessing Cow's Mouth can be difficult as you have to negotiate your way down the rocks when the tide is out. As for when the tide is in, it can be impossible to continue in either direction if you're on a coastal walk. For my location drawing I was on the North-side facing the enormous cliff.

Most of my visits to the cove were made early in the morning when I knew that the huge cliff was still in the shade, as I already knew what it was that I wanted to focus on. I've drawn the rocks opposite the cliff when inside the cove looking back at the sea. This was in the Summer when one of the trees had all of its leaves, and at a time of day when the hot sun shone directly on top of the rocks to make the fissures appear even darker and more pronounced. It was on a day when there was a haze, and the sky and sea occasionally merged into one with hardly a ripple in the water. Places such as this can seem quite dreamlike on days like these, and the peeping calls of the Oystercatcher as they fly across the surface of the sea in small groups or the sound of Curlew only enhances your experience of the Silverdale Coast.

This week I was interested in the same tree but from the opposite side looking in to the cove. In Winter sunshine you see all of its branches illuminated against the dark shade of the cliff behind. Up to a certain time in the late morning most of the cliff and hillside remains in shadow, before the sun begins to lighten some of the trees which are windshaped across the cliff-top, and then the sunlight wipes away the shadows by the afternoon. At this point I have taken a different perspective looking back to the bay again, when you get a nice play of light and shadow on the rock-face. It is a sheer vertical cliff which features a cave, and on one of my visits during the high spring tides I decided to draw the reflection of this cave when the sea level was just beginning to drop without too much movement from the wind.

A subject as big as Cow's Mouth can offer you endless possibilities for expression. And for me, location drawing is a way in which I can explore some of those possibilities by learning about the subject and making studies and experiments. If you spend enough time working in this way - or painting en plain air - then not only can you express some of the excitement you felt at the time, but your experience is greatly enhanced by all of the other things which you see and feel as you continue working. We do not have an endless supply of energy, and nothing is more challenging than working in this way. On the edge of the cove I was able to listen out for the tidal bore and watch as it crashed in to the rocks, quickly filling Cow's Mouth and flooding the cave. And after its retreat, my gaze inevitably returns to the vast expanse of the bay.

Silverdale Cove is another interesting one situated on the opposite side of the village, and similar features continue all the way up to Arnside as long as you don't mind a bit of sloppy mud when it's wet.

As an afterthought I wish to relay some observations I made during my discovery of Cow's Mouth in Summer 2018, when a young couple arrived when I was drawing and began filling a bag with some of the plastic waste washed up inside the cove. More than a few bin liners could have quickly been filled, and scientists have now apparently discovered plastic fibers in the deepest trenches of our oceans.