Snow Shower over Skyreholme

"Much more straightforward - although no less important - is Richard Eurich’s Snow Shower Over Skyreholme (1973). Eurich’s landscapes are possessed with an unrivaled lyrical realism, although the compositions often have a pleasingly eerie edge to them. So it is with this brooding painting of the deserted Yorkshire Dales, an outstanding example of his later work."

The name 'Skyreholme', a hamlet in Wharfedale close to Appletreewick (from which the Eurichs took the name of their Hampshire house), comes from Old Norse and means 'bright water-meadow'. The lush green patchwork in the middle of this painting suggests just such a fertile terrain, with which the bracken-pink hillside above contrasts tellingly, crowned by the dark and boldly brushed outline of the forested summit. This landscape is by no means empty or threatening: besides the traces of man's presence (metal fence posts and drystone walling), a solitary goldfinch is perched on the wall, near the centre at the bottom …

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The name 'Skyreholme', a hamlet in Wharfedale close to Appletreewick (from which the Eurichs took the name of their Hampshire house), comes from Old Norse and means 'bright water-meadow'. The lush green patchwork in the middle of this painting suggests just such a fertile terrain, with which the bracken-pink hillside above contrasts tellingly, crowned by the dark and boldly brushed outline of the forested summit. This landscape is by no means empty or threatening: besides the traces of man's presence (metal fence posts and drystone walling), a solitary goldfinch is perched on the wall, near the centre at the bottom edge. Its bright plumage is a point of lyrical joy and sets the emotional timbre of the whole picture.

See how this work is tied together in the mind of one of Richard's daughters with another 1973 painting The Epiphany.