Balsam by the Axe

Oil on Board, 10 x 14 inches

The River Axe winds its way down to the sea at Axmouth and Seaton in Devon, but meanwhile, back a couple of miles, here's a beautiful spot where freshwater vegetation adorns the banks.  The non-native Himalayan Balsam, very showy with its pink blooms, has taken over much of our waterways, but is nonetheless very colourful.  Up in my part of the world it is a little less brash with its pale pink coloured flowers, but here in Devon, it is very loud, a much more lurid pink.

This was a quiet, rather murky day, but the cloud was beginning to lift and the atmosphere was soft and hazy, so no contrasty darks and singing lights like the last painting below, Bluebells by the Teign. But this sort of atmosphere makes the distant woodland appear very blue.  You can go back to the same place in our great land and it never looks the same - how lucky am I being a painter?