Apple Blossom, Great Chalfield.

Just updating this image.
Another view looking back at the house in May .....

..... and catching the last of the Apple Blossom. Also showing Climbing Roses and Wisteria on the left.

Apple Blossom at Great Chalfield

I was asked to paint an apple tree at Great Chalfield Manor  

There was quite a delay before I could get there but I think I made it just in time and found the trees with flowering blossom. This little tree caught my eye and appropriately it is seen against a backdrop of the Apple Store, building on the left, and some of the cottages on the Estate. Amazingly it was a beautiful fresh day after the dire wet cold month we've been  having ( yes I know the rain is much needed) so I really enjoyed the sun on my back, getting quite hot at times.

 Bach's Chaconne for solo Violin played Hilary Hahn.1/2
(good music to paint to) 

Joshua Bell playing the Chaconne in Washington Metro subway

A painting of Great Chalfield Manor, capturing the winter afternoon light from the south lower moat - painted in preparation for having a stall at their Christmas Fair. . (The fair was a nice experience, in the Great Hall hung with 18th tapestries and the adjacent panelled room where I was designated a heavy old carved oak table to display my wares.)

The little C15th church can be seen on the RH side, and a glimpse of the Tropnell Chapel Window mullions, for which I made  a stained glass window "The Seed and the Sower"  (2nd row, 1st on left). The choice of subject was  good reason to  put in a lot of  the Estate's 'Flora and fauna' .The interpretation arose from suggestions of a member of the donor family, his ideas as a farmer/land manager and conservationist. The window reflects his love of the natural world and countryside around his home, where the family have lived for two  generations. His father was also a keen naturalist and the founder of the Wiltshire Wildlife Trust in the early1960's