It would have been a shame to waste the unexpectedly glorious weather, so I packed up my kit and revisited an old haunt... this time with a long, narrow canvas that has been awaiting the subject since last autumn. The trees are rather less colourful than they were in
September - it's too early for the spring foliage to have come in, even - but the view is still stunning. And using a long canvas means that I can get the whole hill in, without succumbing to the temptation to squash it in or being forced to include too much foreground.
However, it is quite a small painting; there's a limit to the length of canvas that I can carry on the back of my pack and still get along the narrower footpaths. That limit is quite close to 60 cm...
Oh, I nearly forgot, here's an in-progress shot:
... taken at lunch time, after just under an hour's work.
Oil on canvas, 60 x 25 cm.
The sky is a wonderful colour. The hill is very flat on top, is that a feature of all downs or just that one, I wonder. Great painting, the in-progress one looks like it could become a coastal scene.
ReplyDeleteThere was a distinct pink tinge in the sky just above the hill. Odd for midday, I thought.
ReplyDeleteAs to the flatness, it's certainly not uncommon; I don't know if all of the downs are topped by plateaus but many of our local ones do. They're chalk escarpments, which I suppose means that the coastal concept isn't too far from the truth. The areas of white do look a bit like exposed chalk cliffs, don't they?