Hazy September

 Oil on canvas, 22 x 30 inches

I was going to call this one 'The Cobweb', but 'Hazy September' describes the painting well I think.  This was one of those lovely, bright, hazy, late summer days, much like the unseasonal ones we are experiencing over this Easter period. Dewy gossamer was adorning all the bankside vegetation, with one big cobweb made all the more visible with its watery embellishment (I think I've turned into a poet).

Again, it is my favourite sort of light effect - looking straight into it - which gives that gorgeous sparkle of sunlight on the water.  I find painting these light effects extremely taxing to get the tones of the receding planes of trees light enough.  I seem to invariably make them too dark and have to repaint them much lighter than my eyes are telling me.  Paint what you see Barker, not what you think you see, as I always drum into the folks who attend my demos.  I've only been painting for a living for 28 years, so you wouldn't expect me to get it right first time yet....ahem.  It took longer than I would have hoped for that reason, but I'm happy with the result, I think, at this early juncture.