Five more tiddlers...

 Frosty River-Run

 Winter Sunshine

 Autumn Beeches

Sparkling Water near Gretton

 Pembroke Waves

All these little guys are the 3.5 x 5 inches again, so there will be eight in the gallery, framed and ready for Christmas in the gallery in a couple of weeks!

Three Little Pickies

I used to paint a lot of these very small landscapes in oil, but at only 3.5 x 5 inches, I haven't done any for years, fearing that my eyes wouldn't cope with the small scale, but surprise, surprise, I found I could still manage them! They make present-sized, affordable gifts for the festive season fast-approaching, so will be doing two or three more if there is demand. 

I have deliberately photographed and posted them at low resolution, because having seen them at full size, at 2-3MB, much larger on the screen than actual size, they looked awful, but the errors can't be seen at actual size, so they look much better without the warts-and-all!

My NEW 2018 Calendar is out!

Yes, my new 2018 Calendar, featuring 14 seasonal images of my paintings, with a front and back cover, is available in the gallery at £15, or via post, online at http://www.peterbarkerfineart.co.uk/shop/viewcategory.php?groupid=40
Perfect Christmas presents!

Harvest Stacks by South Luffenham Mill

Oil on Linen Canvas, 18 x 26 inches

Slightly out of season this one, but it's been kicking around in my studio for a few weeks and had the chance to finish it off yesterday.

I've always loved painting straw stacks, and I saw this view whilst driving home from Stamford - just had to pull over and take a few photos. The 'hook' really was the beautiful cloud formation, looking almost straight into the light, with the sunlight bouncing off the roofs of the little row of station cottages. I played around with the composition a little and moved the big foreground stack over to the right to puncture through the skyline, which might have appeared a little dull.

Having blocked in the shape of the big stack, I employed my 1" household decorator's brush to pile on quite thick layers of texture to describe the straw. I just love the versatility of oil paint - it can be used delicately, and piled on for impact - lush!