Spring under lockdown, a totally new experience.

Painting the Hawthorne blossom along the escarpment road on Salisbury Plain

Last year the Hawthorn blossoms were exceptional. Every spring is so busy I am always rushing past them but  last year I vowed I'd take a week off to paint some. Little did I know what was around the corner with total lockdown when one couldn't do more than a short 1 hour exercise and not drive to any location. Still the lockdown came to an end before the blossoms had faded and I managed to  I managed to  do some, and and also painted in the garden.

Painted from Salisbury Plain, facing west, a view of Roundway hill, the scene of a civil wall battle, can be glimpsed  between the bushes. 

Facing North, over the vale of Pewsey

View from the Easel

Cow drinking in shade under s tree between Little and Great Cheverell

Cherry Blossom in the garden next door to mine

Painting the Autumn Beech Trees, at Avebury Stone Circle, Wiltshire.

The four great Beech Trees at Avebury, also sometimes referred to as "Tolkien’s Trees”. There is a photograph of him sitting under them and he reputedly used to sit on the roots finding inspiration for his stories."

This was a week later Larger Format, many of the leaves had fallen

A windy day, painted atop the earthwork ridge looking North.

Vale of Pewsey

View from Etchilhampton hill into the Vale of Pewsey on a hot September day.

Oak tree in a quiet farm lane, trying to capture the dappled light and shade in the trees

Pembrokshire in August

SKOMER ISLAND, 

PembrokshireWest Wales

Painted, late afternoon, whilst my family went for a walk within the span of about an hour. 

My plan is to return and do a series to capture the change of light and the weather, over a few hours.

Freshwater West

A view of Newgale Sands on a  cloudy afternoon.

The rocky beach at Freshwater West

The

CLOUDS on Salisbury Plain

Clouds can be a lovely subject but a challenge. because they change so quickly, second by second, so one has to work at lightning speed and somehow arrive at composition at the end.

Flowering rapeseed fields in Wiltshire

I enjoyed painting this on a glorious sunny morning in May, the huge fields of flowering rapeseed crop near Chirton and Marden in Wiltshire.  Trying to capture the sense of scudding clouds casting shadows on a breezy day.
I used 'artistic license to compress the landscape considerably and encompass the ploughed red earth area on the left.

(oil on gesso plywood panel 10" x 24") Unusually wide format

Evening Hawthorne

The Hawthorne have been so splendid this year.  I managed to escape from the stained glass studio and find some time to paint a tree in a quiet rural cul-de-sac near the canal at All Cannings Village in the Vale of Pewsey, Wiltshire.  

It definitely  needs more may-blossom, shall try to  continue with it or start a larger study but this is the first spontaneous splash of paint

The medium is oil on primed board. Size 12" x 10"

A quick watercolour sketch from a bird-hide on the Somerset Levels - that hill is Glastonbury Tor in the distance.

Snow

Recent snows. I had a cool time painting this. Fingers froze.

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 :)