Quiet Day Towards Widford

Oil on Board, 10 x 14 inches

Here's another studio painting from my Cotswolds painting trip.  This was about a mile downstream, two days after I saw "JR Hartley" and painted 'Bright Evening by The Windrush'.  The light was very different; gone was the bright sunlight, and the landscape took on a much more close-toned, calmer feel to it, ironically much easier to paint en plein air, because the light doesn't change much, but I didn't have time, only enough to take a few photos and some mental notes.

I made the mistake of contriving a brighter sky for the subject, but near the end, I felt it didn't work, so I re-painted it with more sombre tones, which seemed to sit better within the overall tone of the piece.  Listen to me...I almost sounded a bit precious then for a moment...'piece' indeed...I should be an art critic!  The greeny-white Cow Parsley was good fun to paint, and a test of getting the colours right, sitting against the bluey-grey water.  The hay field on the far bank had just been cut and provided a nice ochrey foil to all the greens.

Anyway, I'm happy with the result, despite the lack of contrast.  It can be a mistake sometimes to search out the sunlight and ignore the seemingly dull scene in front of you.  If you take a look at my fellow artists' websites and blogs on their links to the right, you can see that they have made some terrific plein air studies in very overcast conditions.  Talking of overcast, have a look at David Pilgrim's two cracking paintings of the Queen's pageant last Sunday at http://davidpilgrimart.blogspot.co.uk/2012/06/as-not-seen-on-tv.html, both painted in the pouring rain! 

I must apologise for the deep, gravelly tone of my words on this post - I contracted some horrible cold virus that has made its home in my chest and throat, making me sound firstly like Joe Pasquale, and now like Barry White.  I shall, hopefully, be well and sounding normal (just plain sexy) by the time you all come to see me at Patchings Art Festival next week, where I shall be demonstrating all four days in the painting marquee, Thursday 14th through to Sunday 17th inclusive, more details to follow.