Threatening Skies over the River Soar

 Oil on Board, 12 x 17 inches

I painted this one as a demo to the Vale of Belvoir Art Society.  It was slightly ambitious to complete it to exhibition standard in the allotted two hours, and I failed miserably!  Mind you, I was up against it a little in that I went down with a stinker of a cold virus in the morning.  I did feel a bit rough and was sneezing and dripping (too much information) onto the palette throughout.  That did enable me to ham it up a little and get the sympathy vote...didn't work though - they're a hard lot at Bottesford!

Having completed it back in the studio, I'm reasonably pleased with it.  There aren't a lot of lit surfaces in the painting, but I loved the dark clouds hanging over and their dark reflections in the water, with a few flecks of light, thus giving quite a dramatic light effect, despite the lack of direct sunlight.  The winding River Soar, near Loughborough, gives a nice 'lead-in' to the picture, and the figure and cattle provide a little scale - always a useful feature.