Country Ice Cream

 Oil on Canvas, 18 x 26 inches

I was walking along this road near home with its gorgeous avenue of Oaks in late May, when the Walls Ice Cream van came past on its way up to Lyndon, having toured around the other local villages. So, I took a quick photo of it, catching it as it was partly in shadow from the trees. This gave the brightly coloured van some beautiful stripes of light and shadow, the yellow echoing the oil-seed rape in the field on the right.

I've painted this tree-lined avenue several times before, mostly in October/November, when the rust-coloured foliage transforms the scene into a cathedral of Autumn splendour.  Biut this is the first time I've painted it in its Spring garb, with the profusion of Cow Parsley lighting up the verges.  The passing Ice Cream van provided a perfect addition to the painting, and its colours couldn't have been better and I had great fun painting it!