Or your favourite Lakeland artist might be one of the greats from the past. There are so many, and that's easy to understand, with the inspiration of a stunning landscape.
Our favourite gallery is in Ambleside at The Old Courthouse where you'll find paintings alongside glass, jewellery, ceramics and wood. It's all spread over three floors, and the work displayed here is the finest contemporary art.
A recent exhibition by Victoria Miller was Painting the Wainwrights, showcasing original oil paintings of all 214 Wainwrights (the Lake District peaks included in Alfred Wainwright's legendary guidebooks). The mountains, locally called fells, were depicted across a mix of single-fell and multi-fell panoramic paintings, and the work was the culmination of personal challenge to climb and paint all 214 Wainwrights.
Now Victoria is to stage another show this autumn at the Old Courthouse, featuring more of the paintings from her Wainwright adventures.
Looking further back, there are two outstanding and very unusual female artists among our favourite Lakeland artists. Beatrix Potter is as much a part of childhood for today’s children as she was for us and even our grandparents, with her Peter Rabbit books.
But she was also a respected mycologist, dedicated to the scientific study of fungi and mushrooms. And some of her most astonishing works are more than 450 scientifically accurate watercolor illustrations of fungi. Many of these can be seen at the Armitt Museum in Ambleside.
Josefina de Vasconcellos was a sculptor whose stunning stone carvings can be found across the Lake District. Originally from Brazil, she made her home in Little Langdale, and then she and her family helped to set up an outdoor education centre in the Duddon Valley for disadvantaged boys,for which she was awarded the MBE.
Her work can be seen in many Cumbrian locations, including St Mary’s Church in Ambleside, Kendal’s Parish Church, and in the grounds of Rydal Hall. Josefina remained in demand as a sculptor well into her late 90s and, at the age of 97, she was commissioned by Sir Richard Branson to create a piece of work. At that time, she was the world’s oldest working sculptor.
The grand masters of art and definitely among our favourite Lakeland artists are Alfred Heaton Cooper (1863 - 1929) and his son William Heaton Cooper (1903 - 1995). They both painted extensively in the Lake District as well as other mountain areas around the world in all seasons and weather conditions. Their work is on display at the lovely Heaton Cooper Studio in Grasmere.
William's son Julian Cooper is considered to be the UK's greatest living mountain painter, and his work in on show at the gallery, too. There are visiting exhibitions as well including, currently, the work of Julian's wife Linda Ryle.