Tree near Ladle Hill (December)

There's this tree on the downs. It's between The Beeches and Ladle Hill, and it's very striking.

From One Hill Fort to Another

This was a plein air painting made back in July, just before the schools broke up and summer holiday madness commenced.

The Beeches - SOLD

With your back to Watership Down, you are looking down the line of The Beeches and the footpath to Ladle Hill (the footpath is part of the Wayfarer's Walk, a long distance path). You can see the sloping side of Ladle Hill through the trees to the right.

I took a few liberties with fences (largely removal thereof) and I also took a tree out to improve the view.

Oil on canvas 33 x 55cm
SOLD

EDIT (20 December 2013): High quality "giclée" prints will be available of this painting in the new year.

Watership Down and Ladle Hill in progress

A series of photographs taken of today's painting as it progressed. Photography occurred at tea breaks or other such random interruptions.

Watership Down and Ladle Hill

The weather was miserable today; it was definitely not a painting expedition day. And, because 40 inches isn't a painting expedition sized canvas, I decided that today was the day to do a big(gish) painting of an earlier sketch and photograph from October last year.

EDIT: Click here to see the "in-progress" post for this painting.

Oil on box canvas, 16 x 40"
For sale

Watership Down and Ladle Hill: Drawing Pencil

I really wish that Derwent had come up with a better name for these lovely pencils. They call them "Drawing Pencils", or, sometimes "Soft Drawing Pencils". Which could easily apply to a 4B graphite, say. (Aren't all pencils for drawing with? Even the H family - which I generally shun - are intended for drawing. Very precise drawing.)

I don't think that there is any graphite in these pencils. They are smooth and waxy and come in a range of muted, natural-seeming colours (the range is quite similar to the Sennelier "Nature" box). I now have the tin of 24 colours, which I think is all of them. I already had the earth-toned tin of 6, which I used for Study in Yellow. It's nice to be able to hint at blues and greens, and I think that the full range of colours suit this subject, which is from a photograph taken at around 5:30 pm earlier this month, when the sun was on its way down and the hillsides were in shadow.

Here's a slightly earlier, sketchier version in the earth colours:

Drawing on A4 paper

EDIT: There's a painting, too...

On the Slopes of Ladle Hill

Ladle Hill is within walking distance of my house (around 5 miles, I think), but, but the time I get there it's almost time to come home and there is certainly not enough time to paint.