Oil on Board, 14 x 20 inches
I have provisionally painted this one for the Royal Institute of Oil Painters annual exhibition, in the hope that something traditional might get accepted.
It's a view near Mickleton in the Cotswolds, my old stamping ground - I was an assistant professional golfer at Stratford-upon-Avon for 6 years in the early seventies, and originally hail from Banbury in Oxfordshire. I drove past this corner and looked to my left to see this beautiful, classically-shaped English Oak, with a backdrop of hills and woods, and a couple of barns, with lots of sheep in the field. It was a custom-made composition.
Here are a couple of early stages of the painting, just to show the anatomy of the painting:
...and here I've worked on the sky, before going back into the main tree and painting in the other main players. You can see that I placed the sheep, especially the three in the foreground, to direct the eye into the painting, towards the focal point itself.
Right, now on to the next one...
Wow Peter, this is a stunner! Beautiful and typical view of the English countryside. I don't know why galleries ignore more traditional works like this in favour of paintings that shock or have a passing impact - I could live my life with something like this on the wall and look upon it with interest every day.
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