Sunlit Trees

Oil 6 x 8 inches

My last painting of 2014, painted en plein air on the last day of the year in freezing temperatures, unusually for me with the sun behind me. Thought I'd catch the last of the frost on the reeds before this warmer weather has hit us again. 

Painting outside on site has its downsides - no comfortable heated studio with reference material that doesn't change with the movement of the sun, with all the gubbins needed for painting spread around - but nothing quite has the excitement of painting directly from the subject. I can't pretend it's easy though, because the lighting of the subject does change considerably over the period of a painting, no matter how slick you are. In this painting, the dead vegetation dripping into the water in the right foreground was darker than the bank behind it when I started, but I opted to make it lighter with the sun shining on it, as it was at the end of the painting. Also, the patches of blue frost had completely disappeared when I'd finished, but I liked the contrast they provided in an otherwise brown painting, so I popped them in. The whole exercise was doubly challenging because having got my whole kit set-up and started painting, I realised I hadn't brought my little tin for cleaning the brushes in White Spirit...so I had to use only the tiny dipper, which was awkward to say the least!

Anyway, I'd like to sincerely thank all of you who have followed my Blog in 2014 showing my paintings and ramblings, and especially if you've gone to the trouble of leaving comments - it's always much appreciated, and even more so if you're one of the lovely people who have bought my work and kept me off the streets! 

2015 will be a very exciting new year with a major project coming to fruition - more of that in a while... In the meantime, thank you again for looking in and may I wish you a Happy New Year!