Flights of fancy let artist run on her own terms

But she is wary of her work taking second place to her name.

She knows that celebrity seduces the media. And pop stars and film stars are not the only ones to draw us in. A Wasdale shepherd who is perhaps the greatest-ever fell runner also intrigues. Gillian is, among many other things, Joss Naylor’s daughter.

“I’ve never talked about him to a journalist before,” she says, sitting in the living room of her Brampton home. 

“It’s not relevant. Everybody that knows me knows me as Gill. Nobody would introduce me as Joss Naylor’s daughter. Would you like to be described in your work as someone’s son?”

Most of Gillian’s running has been away from comparisons and towards her own identity.

She is winning this race. And yet those who barely know her will continue to use her dad as a reference point, looking for similarities, and perhaps finding one in their keenly alert eyes.

Growing up in west Cumbria’s breathtaking Wasdale Valley, Gillian was happy to be seen as her father’s daughter.

“I always ran as a kid, because my dad was running and I wanted to be with my dad. Me and my dad had a great relationship when I was a kid.

“I remember when I was about seven, he went up on the fells to look after the sheep. Snow was on the ground. He left me at the head of the valley with an old dog on a bit of string and a Mars bar he’d divided into sections with his thumbnail.

“When I saw him on the first top I could eat the first bit of Mars bar. When I saw him on the second top I could eat the second bit, and so on.

“This day it was so cold. I put snow in my wellies because I wanted to take it home with me. I was too young to understand that it would melt.

“I had soaking wet feet. When he got back to me I was shaking. When we got back home he said; ‘don’t tell your mother!’”

She smiles at the memory. They are still close, but Gillian points out: “I’m 50. The last time I lived at home I was 16. My life isn’t about my father. My life is about my kids, my painting and my friends.”

Her upbringing was a major influence on her art: the place more than the people.

“What I loved about living in Wasdale was you’re just surrounded by nature. I used to make sculptures out of anything, found bits and pieces. I remember when I was very young painting bleached bones.”

Yorkshire artist Peter Brook sometimes stayed at the family’s cottage. Gillian was told by her mother, Mary, not to bother him. 

But Gillian remembers watching him when she was only about four, fascinated by this man making pictures, and by the smell of paint.

When she was a teenager Gillian accompanied Peter on painting trips. 

“He’d provide me with a sketch pad and some Derwent pencils and drop me somewhere. He’d go off and paint somewhere else. He was a grumpy guy. He didn’t really want my company. But he liked what I did. From that point on I always painted.”

Gillian went to boarding school in Keswick at the age of 11 and left home permanently a few weeks after leaving school. As much as she loves Wasdale, it has not been home for a long time.

“When I was a kid I wanted to be a farmer because my dad was a farmer. My dad didn’t want that for me. I think he wanted my brother and sister and me to travel and not get stuck in the valley.

“I was abroad for a couple of years. I went to Australia, India and Nepal.”

She had worked in hotels, at home and abroad, while painting for pleasure. By her early twenties, Gillian was back in Britain with her first child, Lochlan. She also has two daughters: Ella and Alice.

At 30, Gillian returned to education, studying fine art at Cumbria Institute of the Arts in Carlisle. Being a mature student held no fears.

‘Mature’ is still not a word she would choose to describe herself. “It’s the old thing everybody says – I don’t feel any different. If you’re a playful person you just feel the same.”

She graduated from art college with a first class degree. “I think college helped me trust in the way I work. You come across other artists who all have their own unique styles. That gives you the courage to stick with your style.”

Gillian’s paintings are infused with the landscape of her youth, often including the sun, the moon, and mountains.

“The mountains are burned in my mind, seeing that valley every day. They probably do represent home for me. Just as birds represent freedom, flights of fancy or escape.

“The phases of the moon represent the passing of time and the repeated image of the sun is a journey.

“I’m developing a symbolic language. I like to tell a story but I’m not going to give all the answers, so the viewer can come up with their own ideas.”

Much of Gillian’s recent work concerns refugees. The images include an empty boat.

“Yes, society needs boundaries. But if you’re not going to look out for people in need you could be condemning them to death. It’s easy to think they’re other than us. I’m just responding to some of the negative things that are in the media.”

She is producing prints of one painting, Flight, with profits going to Calais Action Carlisle. This group takes supplies to refugee camps in Calais.

Another influence on Gillian’s work is the way her brain is wired. At Cumbria Institute of the Arts she was diagnosed as dyslexic.

“There’s always an upside,” she says. “I’m probably not going to write my life story. But I might paint it. I find it very easy to think in pictures. If I research something I get a visual image in my mind as an answer.”

She and Alice, 12, have lived in Brampton for the past two years. Gillian has taught art at Brampton Community Centre and she ran a children’s painting group. She is also a part-time gardener, combining her passions for creativity and nature.

Brampton’s sense of community appeals to Gillian, although the town lacks some qualities of the place she grew up.

“Maybe because I started out somewhere as extraordinarily beautiful as Wasdale, I’m always looking for other beautiful places. That’s why I love travelling. I don’t ever see myself as settled. I’m saving up for a camper van at the moment. But I’ve promised my daughter I’ll be staying here until she’s finished at secondary school.”

Gillian chose this house partly because it backs onto fields. The view is lovely, if not quite the Wasdale Valley. But some comparisons are unfair, as Gillian knows well.

• Some of Gillian Naylor’s recent work will be exhibited alongside work by painter Carol McDermott, sculptor Paul Hardcastle and performance artist Jane Dudman at Gallery Number Three, 3 Hartington Place, Carlisle, CA1 1HL. The exhibition takes place on the weekends of December 12-13 and 19-20, from 10am-6pm. For more information call 07756 967965.