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.

Prussia Cove cliffs

Prussia Cove Cliffs, oil on linen canvas, 46 x 55 cm

Prussia Cove is a secluded part of the south Cornish coast, with a turbulent history of wrecking and smuggling. Now, however, it is known for its natural beauty and an International Music Seminar. When the tide is in, the beach is all rocks, pebbles and rock pools. Here I have focussed on the cliffs, which had some reddish vegetation clinging to them. I don't know what it was, but I do like the extra colour, which drew my attention away from the sea back towards the land.

Prussia Cove Cliffs
oil on linen canvas, 46 x 55 cm

£360

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

Dancing Trees

Dancing Trees, oil on linen canvas, 33 x 41 cm

Another one from late last year. This is based on photographs taken two Januaries ago in Hamstead Park near Newbury, Berkshire.

Gold and Grey - SOLD

Yesterday's in-studio painting, a local landscape. The trees on the ridge may be familiar if you recall Ridge or any of the Skyline paintings.

Oil on canvas, 100 x 65 cm
SOLD

Kernow Blue

It's not often that I get to go to Cornwall during the bluebell season, but this weekend, I was in Cornwall and I did go down to the woods to paint. Again, though, I was too early for the full blue-carpet effect, but this did allow for wood anemones and - in the distance - wild garlic to peep through.

Oil on canvas, 38 x 46 cm

Harriden's Blue

It's spring, and the bluebells are coming out. Time to go painting...

This was painted,on Wednesday, on the edge of Harriden's Great Copse, a hunting wood with a public footpath through it. Despite the fact that Wednesday was far and away the best day of the week, it was cold out there. Sitting in the shade didn't help. I did as much as I could and finished the painting from memory in the studio.

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.

Snowdrops Across the River

This year, it seems that my plein-air season (that is, the time of year that I can comfortably paint outdoors) has started early - usually, I try mark it with a bluebell painting. But this year has been good for snowdrops, and these were within such a short walk from my studio that I could carry the finished wet oil painting back without a box.

Oil on Canvas,  30 x 30cm

Fisher and Warrior - SOLD

This is a painting based on a sketch (and supporting photographs). It's of a charmingly scruffy fishing boat in Portsmouth Harbour, with a Historic Ship (HMS Warrior) in the background.

Evergreen (Newtown Common)

Evergreen

Oil on canvas, 50 x 100 cm

The title may be something of a misnomer, as there is scarcely any green in the painting (there was more in the source photographs), but the trees on this part of Newtown Common were pretty much all evergreens.

The colours weren't the only thing I changed; I also added a second path, to give you a choice of which way to go...

Trees and Seeds

This is a drawing made from a photograph that I took last Wednesday as I headed out on a longish walk on the downs. The trees may look familiar; they are the "Skyline" trees on Plantation Hill, featured in several of my paintings and drawings.

Wiltshire Blue

Coming down off the ridgeway in Wiltshire in June, this caught my eye - I don't know what the crop was, but it was decidedly bluer than anything else growing in the fields. The receding stripes echoed the clouds in the upper part of the sky agreeably and I knew it would make a good painting.

This is rather a quick painting, so there could well be a better one to be made.

Anyway, I took a photograph back in June and used my ancient iMac to display it today, thus circumventing the printer (which needs ink).

Blue Stripey Field
Oil on linen canvas, 30 x 30 cm

Cross Path

I had a busy day yesterday, but I had promised myself a walk and a plein air paint.

Godrevy Dunes

Based on a grey December photograph, this is my rather more colourful interpretaion of Godrevy Light seen from the path over the dunes at Gwithian.

Hackpen - Commission - SOLD

Today, I went back to Hackpen, parked in the car park near the horse, walked along The Ridgeway a bit and then down to the spot I'd identified on Wednesday (slightly further along the path than the place I made Wednesday's sketch at, so that the Field Barn - as described on the ever-useful Ordnance Survey map - fitted in front of the hill, not to the side. I sat in the field margin and painted the hill.

There was a fellow with a remote control aircraft, or something, just down the path. I didn't see what was making the buzzing mechanical drone, so I'm not sure. It wasn't annoying, though, and when he came to say hello, we had a delightful conversation.

He told me that the three clumps of trees on the hill (the leftmost is partially hidden behind the central one in my picture; I don't think that the clump above the white horse counts) were planted for the purpose of rearing and shooting game.

Coincidentally, I surprised a pheasant on my walk back up to the Ridgeway. It - with its sudden explosion of movement and loud whirring wing strokes - rather surprised me, too.

Oil on canvas, 30 x 60 cm

The Hurlers, left and right

This is a "housekeeping" post intended to simplify navigation. It is not a new painting.

The Hurlers is a complex of stone circles on Bodmin Moor, Cornwall.

Four-Pastel Sketches

It rained for most of today, but the evening was delightful. My generous husband suggested I get out on the hills for an hour or so after tea; how could I refuse?

Sunset Road - SOLD

I'm really pleased with the way that this turned out. It's based on a photograph from last summer, when I stopped my homeward journey to admire - and photograph - the wonderful sunset.

Wolverton Blue

The plein air season has begun! And what better way to mark it than with a bluebell wood. This one is Brock Copse near Wolverton.