Cannon Heath Down revisited

The Vale of Kingsclere, oil on canvas, 60 x 30 cm

I have been neglecting this blog recently in favour of building an all-new Web site on another platform. This site will remain as an archive.

However, it only seemed right to post today's work here.

The boar tree - SOLD

The boar tree, ink on A3 paper

The roots of this roadside beech tree reminded me of a wild boar - I could see its head and one giant piggy trotter. I haven't deliberately enphasised either feature, not least because the tree is a beautiful sight in itself, with the large, sinuous branch to the left curving up like the muscular neck of a herbivorous dinosaur (I'm thinking diplodocus or brontosaurus), set against the sundappled screen of leaves.

Blue and Gold

Blue and Gold, oil on canvas 46 x 55 cm

A reprise, of sorts, of 2016's Gold and Grey, this is a view from a local footpath. These distinctive trees are visible for miles around and are a welcome landmark as well as a favourite subject.

Blue and Gold

oil on canvas, 46 x 55 cm

£340

Downland beech - SOLD

Molotow acrylic marker pens on paper, A4 (21x29.7cm)

Another monochrome beech tree, albeit with a CMYK (cyan, magenta, yellow and black) sky. It makes it look rather cartoonish, I think - or is that the "googly" face that I keep seeing in its trunk?

This tree is part of a grown-out hedgerow on the ridge of one of our local downs.

SOLD

Folds

Folds
Oil on canvas, 16 x 12"

I had a free sample pack of Winsor and Newton Artists oils. It had four little sachets of colour and a blending / shading medium. I decided to make a brush painting (partly so that I could make use of the medium, partly because the tiny amounts of paint in the sachets wouldn't last very long with a knife, and partly because I haven't used a brush with oils for around 15 years).

Winter Tree

I've had the photograph that this is based on for a few years but this is the first time that I have used it. It shows the valley floor beneath Cannon Heath and Watership Downs.

Oil on canvas, 70 x 50 cm.

Skyline

"Skyline" - new photograph, taken in daylight

There's a lovely ridge very near here where the field sweeps up to a horizon that plays host to a number of trees. It's a subject I keep eyeing up from the footpath, and I have a large collection of photographs of it in all seasons. This painting is based on a photograph taken one evening in July, with the wheat almost ripe and the sky ominously laden with cloud.

Cannon Heath Down (8)

This is a near reprise of the first Cannon Heath Down painting, except that it's 6 months later (and so a different season), smaller, relatively longer (which helped me avoid the awkward foreground detail), and, I think, more accomplished. I guess that all that practice has helped me improve!

Cannon Heath Down (7)

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.

Watership Down in the Snow - SOLD

This is another work from a photograph. It was a bit cold to sit and paint in the snow, so I took a camera out on my walk - to the same position that I painted Watership Down (1) from - and took a series of shots. I was slightly disappointed that we didn't get much snow this winter - unlike the last two years, which were, as it happens, exceptionally snowy. This, from February, was the snowiest picture that I could manage; as you can see the hill is satisfyingly covered, but you can see vegetation on the valley floor.

Cannon Heath Down: Prehistory

Modern Cannon Heath Down: a view along the Wayfarer's Walk
and gallops, towards Cottington's Hill. June 2011.