Painting Tintern Abbey

Yesterday the day felt different and I took myself off to the Wye Valley.  I've probably not been there for 10 years or more and a sudden yearning to do so has been popping insistently into my head for a couple of weeks, since I saw the program, "A great Welsh adventure" with Gryff Rees Jones, recently shown on TV.
It is very hard to find a clear view of the Abbey from this north side (despite it's size). This was painted from the fenced in footpath above the  field.across the river.  I eventually found  a gap  in the foliage growing up the wire fence.  Several people stopped to talk, and it was a very pleasant 2 hours spent there

As finished  on site .........

With  a bit more finishing once I got home .......

Showing start to end, development of the painting. ....

in progress

And a second visit the following week.

This was larger, on canvas and finished in more detail

Recent Concert in Malmesbury

As well as painting, music makes the world go round,
The Bath Bach Choir preformed their summer concert in Malmesbury Abbey. We did a set of Tchaikovsky Vespers and the Requiem by Gabriel faure, which  we'd sung the previous week, jointly with members of Darius Millaud Choir from Aix-en-Provence who had paid us a return visit after our trip to sing with them Aix in 2013.

This is a rendering of  a short  encore piece. Otche Nash (The Lords Prayer) by Nikolai Kedrov which  we sang in Russian and were required to memorize by heart, (a very difficult task!).