Boxing day paintings

Boxing day paintings - and Happy New year though it is just into February already.

On Boxing Day I managed to get the family's permission to escape to paint whilst they went for a long walk on the Malvern Hills.
Wiltshire,  where I live, has a dearth of Silver Birch, trees which I often long to paint but there are some around Malvern and on the hills, so at last I got to paint some against a backdrop of colourful rocks in an old quarry.

I'd started the painting above then needing a break, leaving the easel and gear in situ I drove off for 10mins to warm up and recharge my phone battery. When I got back an elderly man and child (about 10yrs old)  were standing at my easel, more of their family waiting nearby.   "She wants to know how to paint trees." he said, so I gladly gave a 3 minute or so an explanation on 'How to best paint trees', feeling at the same time my example on the easel wasn't  quite good enough.   However, the girl listened so attentively I sensed that she really wanted to learn. 

Who knows she may even become a painter one day :)

Plein Air meet at British Camp, Malvern.

Another meeting of the UK plein Air Society proved a very enjoyable day, blessed with great weather. After starting the meet with a coffee together at the British Camp Hotel, catching up, and getting aquainted with new members etc., we climbed, recovered our breath(!),  and painted towards the North first, with  a view one of the peaks above Malvern Town  ( the town is below the peak to the right and out of the picture)

We'd all set up first on the NE side looking  towards the Beacon peak.  Peter Cronin - foreground, Roy Wilkinson - far left, Anthony Bridge - far right, GlynisDray -  has just been checking progress on the others and heading back to her easel,

 Moving round the ramparts, a longish walk to the South showed another stunning view from the Black Mountains and round towards Cheltenham and Gloucester.  At the new site, I always seem to be the last to settle and start painting, with the wide choice of open vista. I could see rain towards the Black Mountains so turned my back to that to include the southern tip of the hills;  this painting is a bit literal but I couldn't resist adding colleagues at their work; Roy Wilkinson and  Anthony Bridge, perched against the skyline. . We could see rain in the north, felt  a few scattered drops but the raincloud barely missed us and I heard they's had a good downpour in Malvern. Lucky - it is very exposed on the hill.

My easel, just before packing up at 4.50pm,  the models (posing for free) had long gone for coffee at the hotel a mile or so below so I had to hurry to catch up.

Malvern Hills from Sink Farm Lane

About 5.00 pm Saturday at Sink Farm, Hangmans Lane, Hanley Castle. About twenty  cows surrounded me at the start (quite intimidating!!), but they soon got bored watching and wandered off towards the barns and vanished, milking time. I went back for an hour today . The sky was somewhat different, however reworking a bit the next day certainly helps to consolidate the piece. Painting into the sun creates its problems, with light changing by the minute but I was trying a system of mixed optical grey, it tends to restrain the colour so works well in this instance as the colour gets bleached out in this type of lighting situation with the sun popping in and out of the clouds.

View from the Malvern Hills

View from the Malvern Hills, early spring morning.