Bonfire and Cloud Shadow

Oil on Board, 7 x 9.5 inches SOLD

Titles of paintings are always tricky, and you try not to repeat previous ones. I thought about this for a minute or two...Rutland Cornfields...Distant Bales...Fireweed Roadsides...but eventually I settled on Bonfire and Cloud Shadows, perhaps to explain the blue smoke in the distance, and the darker stripe across the uncut wheat field.

This one is a view from quite a high aspect near Glaston in my adopted county. The crop in the foreground field had been harvested already, and the radiating lines of the tractor provided perfect 'lead-ins' to the picture, taking the eye on a journey down along the road and up through to the distant barns ans farmhouse.

Because of the small scale of this painting, I painted a great deal of it with my faithful old fan brush worked into the dark shapes of the trees. I also used it to descibe the gorgous pinky-purple of the Rose Bay Willowherb, growing in profusion along the near roadsides in the right.

Storm Brewing

Oil on Board, 4.5 x 6.5 inches SOLD

I rarely do anything smaller than a 6x8 these days, but I had a frame, so did this little painting to fit. 

Continuing in my topical harvest theme, I loved how the yellow ochre fields were lit up against the dark sky above - one of those fleeting light effects you often get at this time of year, with thunderstorms punctuating the hot weather, and the farmers working desperately to cut the corn crops. Often, we hear the sound of the combine harvesters going through the night until 3 or 4 in the morning.

All Peaceful

Oil on Board, 6 x 8 inches SOLD

Here's another scene from my local river, in fact the same place as 'Morning Sparkle', but on a quiet, dullish day - a very different feel to it, with close tones and no flashes of sunlit weed and darks and lights, but none the worse for it.

Harvest Bales

Oil on Board, 6 x 8 inches SOLD

Another topical harvest painting. I love painting straw bales, and most especially these oblong, angular stacks - they catch the light in the most beautiful way, particularly with the sunlight catching the edges. I describe these with firstly slabs of colour with a Long Flat Rosemary & Co Series 279 Size 5, then work into them with either a 1" decorator's brush, or a large fan brush, well-loaded with paint, almost sculpted on to imitate the texture of the straw - gorgeous!

Morning Sparkle

Oil on Board, 8 x 6 inches SOLD

I've painted this little corner of the River Welland often, and it never ceases to inspire me, most especially in the morning, when the sun is straight ahead, and the weedy bits in the water are lit up and give that lovely sparkle on the water surface - who could resist painting it?