1. Waking to the sun shining down the hall way to my bedroom, I went into the woods before breakfast, wanting to catch the sun low in the sky.  Many of the top leaves have fallen from the trees but the lower sections still look a little 'late summer', and the air was warm.

     
    Tilly, our younger dog was up for an early morning run but her mother, Tess, is elderly and stayed in the garden.
     
     
     
    Wandering up along the back track and into the top woodland, there were plenty of photo opportunities, but of course, I missed the best.  Fleeting and beautiful, a stag ran across the track and disappeared as quickly as it came, leaving me with just time to turn the camera on, missing it.
     
     

    I also found another casualty of the recent storms.  This beech was obviously diseased for a while.
    We came back to see Tess wagging her tail.
     
     
     
    I had already made a couple of sketched the other day of a deer, so it seemed only right to get on and paint one after missing my shot today.  That is the point of being an artist, I suppose.
     
     
    Here he is, in all his glory and one I might make into a card for the season - rising of the sun, running of the deer and all that.  :)
     
    Another spectacularly bad photograph, even if I say so myself.
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  2. Stonehenge - oil on board


    This last month has been an interesting one with visits to a few local places including Avebury, Silbury Hill and Stonehenge and meeting one or two interesting antiquarian folk topped off with a week in Cornwall where there were even more stones.
     
    The late start to the season seems to have made the landscape all the more green. 
    (I am not sure whether the skies are more blue or whether we are unused to the sight, but this year's colour seem all the brighter).
     
    It is for this reason I chose to visit Silbury Hill, an ancient site near Avebury which I first visited on a school trip when we were allowed to climb the monument - something which is no longer allowed due to erosion.
     
     
    (I have since sold this painting to a charming antiquarian who has a special interest in the hill).
     
    My initial on site sketch shows the hill more as it really is with the angle being exaggerated in the painting for artistic effect.  There were several jackdaws surfing on the windy skies during my visit and the hawthorn had only just started to flower with a daylight moon low in the sky.
     
     
    A later visit was the reason for the second painting.  I had been sitting against a stone in the circle at Avebury waiting for the sunrise (approximately 5.00 in the morning).  It must have been the early start coupled with a touch of chill which made me trip out a bit when driving back past Silbury Hill.  The morning sun hanging behind me as I drove west low-lighted the landscape as a wood pigeon kept pace with me in the empty blue sky.
     
    I have seen some work by a Devizes artist, David Inshaw, and think it is funny how we have both exaggerated the angle of the hill.  Being a fan of his work, wouldn't it be good to be as successful as him one day?
     
    This is one of his many beautiful descriptions of the hill.
     
     
     
    Unsurprisingly Avebury was deserted on my early morning visit, a few days before the end of May.
     
     
    The view from my stone as I waited for the sun.
     
     
    You can see how long I was sitting there by the two positions of the moon I did at the start and at the end of sketching.
     
     
     
    Kennet Avenue - a double line of stones leading away from the main circles toward Stonehenge.
     
    Mmm- wonder why I was chilled after leaving my coat in the car?
     
     
    Later in June - a week before the solstice, Jack and I were being terribly British taking sandwiches to Stonehenge.  He ate - I sketched.  Whichever finished first meant the other had to stop.
     
    The solstice saw me holidaying with a friend in Looe.  Cornwall has its fair share of ancient stones and after talking to another antiquarian man in Looe, we saw a smaller circle at Duloe.
     
     
    There are some fabulous stone quoits as well.
     
     
    They are just crying out to be painted!

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  3. The sun is out on this beautiful Friday morning and with a list of rather nice things to be getting on with; I still find myself sitting at the kitchen table avoiding them.
     
    The list being collect fishing money - AKA walk round the lake; go to town for ingredients for birthday cake; make said birthday cake; make bed up for homecoming son and daughter; have a glass of wine.   I know what you're thinking; wine is not needed and is possibly a bad thing.  Well no, the last thing is very important as it is a form of relaxation and I have had a busy week what with no electricity one morning, no heating the next and a devil of a session at work yesterday.  (Still aching now).
     
    Still, there is nothing like an itinerary with loose deadlines to keep me stationary.  One more cup of coffee and I'm gone!  :)
     
    Being on a roll with the landscape painting (see previous post with 'Lightning Tree') - I have been going at it while it lasts.
     
    The second of the 'How the Land Lies' is an abstract taken from our canal-side walk at New Year.
     
    My son and I took the tow path toward Winsley from Avoncliff on a blissfully sunny day (although I seem to remember getting grumpy at others also wanting to enjoy the area).
     
    With the intention of creating an abstraction of the land, each scene has an emotional narrative woven into it.  This one has the dual aspect of land and water with the boundaries pleasingly split in two; just like we two walkers.  The path leading past the field trees and the ensuing shadows are also coupled and held in place by the twist of the bridge and horizon.
     
    I did feel truly embraced by the land that day.
     
    The initial sketch.
     
    On to the next one.  Here's a sneak preview.
     
     
    Keeping the colours cool this time.
     
    Whatever you are up to on this blue-skied weekend, I hope you have a good one.
     
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