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.

Vinho Verde

The fourth colour of wine is, of course, green. By which the Portuguese mean "young". I'm not going to go on about the style of wine, except to say that vinho verde is very nice indeed.

This painting differs from the previous wine paintings in that it's on canvas, and is a bit bigger. As it happens, I'd run out of the boards, but  I did have several of these 30 x 40 canvases, which offer a better aspect ratio - and a little more room to suggest the curly "V" on the label.

Oil on canvas, 30 x 40 cm

South African Sauvignon Blanc-Rose

Guess what we had a glass of last night? There's one colour of wine (that I can think of) that I haven't painted yet. Maybe next Friday...

Edit:  I think the names of these vinous paintings are getting longer!

Oil on board, 12 x 10"
The board is a commercially prepared canvas board.
SOLD

Lego Minifigures 40: Punk Rocker

"'Ello Lego Cityyy! Let's rock!"
I wonder what song he's going to launch into?

While I was painting this, it occurred to me to take photographs of the work in progress; I thought you might like to see them.

Acrylic on canvas, 7 x 7 cm.
SOLD

Tankard with Rainbow Reflections - SOLD

This is a little half pint pewter tankard belonging to my husband. I'm not sure that he's ever used it, but it's a pretty thing, and I thought it would complement the wine paintings. I was going to include a beer bottle but the only one I could find would have dwarfed the tankard. Instead, I selected a few coloured bottles from where they were gathering dust on the windowsill, and used them to create a colourful "rainbow" of reflections on the metal:

The bottles have been excluded from the painting deliberately. I didn't want to clutter up the canvas (which is rather small), and I wanted the painting itself to have a hint of magic or mystery about it. Which I have just destroyed with the above photograph.

Oil on canvas, 20 x 20 cm
SOLD