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