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The Flowers of Swaledale is designed to help people who visit, or live in Swaledale and Arkengarthdale, to identify some of the diverse wild flowers which grow in the mixed habitats of the Dales. Thanks to the efforts of farmers and the Yorkshire Dales National Park, and to the age-old methods of agriculture, there remains an enviable richness of flora and the hay meadows are legendary. The abundance of wild flowers... produces a tapestry of colour each summer, which brings many admirers.
Jocelyn Campbell descends from a dales family which left for York in the late nineteenth century. Her parents and sister returned to settle in Swaledale and Arkengarthdale and she from early childhood spent annual holidays in the dales, to where she and her husband finally retired.
Coming from several generations of Swiss and French artists on her mother’s side, Jocelyn trained as an artist herself, studying in London and Edinburgh colleges. She became a lecturer in Art in colleges of education in Scotland and at Stirlng University.
Once settled in the dales she has painted the landscapes and flora and has recently published, through the Swaledale and Arkengarthdale Archaeology Group (SWAAG), a book of drawings of the trees of Swaledale.
Although she does not consider herself to be a botanical artist, her delight in observing the wild flowers of Lebanon, when she and her family lived there, led her to publish a beautiful book of paintings of the flora of the region.
Her hope is that this book will stimulate interest in the especially abundant and beautiful flowers of the two dales.
"For many years I have considered that an understanding and the enjoyment of the Dales landscapes familiar to visitor and strong walker alike, are enhanced by close observation 'of the ground beneath our feet' [...] It is no small achievement that the watercolours in this book are both botanically accurate and artistic portraits."
– Tim Laurie, President, Swaledale and Arkengarthdale Archaeology Group
