![\"Oil](\"http:\/\/www.treeshark.com\/BlogPosts\/Painting\/oil66L.jpg\" "\\"Cotswold")
<\/a><\/p>\nWhen crossing the Cotswolds heading North I was much taken with the raw newly ploughed fields so I stopped and painted this 14in by 10in.\u00a0The wind was very strong and bitterly cold and the light rapidly changing. I might do a studio painting based on this despite its flaws as the subject\u00a0has some interesting abstract possibilities that could be brought to the fore.<\/p>\n
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This was a very picture book scene but very typical of the area. I enjoyed painting it as it gave me the feeling of having “got started” on my expedition.<\/p>\n .<\/p>\n I came across this scene as I drove towards Snowshill on the edge of the Cotswolds. I was taken by the bleak simplicity. I didn’t quite get the tree to my\u00a0satisfaction but I think this will make a good picture if I redo it with a slightly looser treatment. Not possible on site alas as the wind was actually blowing\u00a0the paint across the paper!<\/p>\n .<\/p>\n A peaceful road… not if you were painting it, the backdraught from the passing lorries nearly lifted me off my feet on a couple of occasions. I had a lot\u00a0to get down in a short time and the light was very flat. A great subject though and I shall return and do it again. The road is a Roman one used to carry\u00a0salt from Droitwich in Worcestershire, this stretch is just in Warwickshire approaching the old town of Alcester.<\/p>\n .<\/p>\n The Lakes at last! Over Kirkdale pass and looking down to Brothers Water and Deepdale. Cloud shadows over the hills, who could ask for more. I cheated\u00a0the view point to the right to give the feeling of being in the road. This is something I quite often do as it gives a feeling of being “in” the scene.<\/p>\n .<\/p>\n My first full day and a wet and windy one to boot. I had to weigh down my easel with big rocks. I need to refine my treatment of winter trees, I’m getting\u00a0better at them but not quite getting the balance of detail and brevity of brushstrokes I would like.<\/p>\n .<\/p>\n More trouble with winter trees! Although I often like the result when watercolourists reduce a tree to a quick wash and a few sticks I feel it doesn’t\u00a0really do them justice sometimes and it is easy to fall into the habit of populating your scenes with”stock” trees rather than taking on that particular tree.\u00a0Here I made the error of going in too dark too soon which reduced my options later.<\/p>\n .<\/p>\n This is Aira Force waterfall near Ullswater. Great fun to paint though the mist from the fall made me and my palette quite\u00a0wet. I was very tempted to take this further but decided to stop at this level. I can always do another from this and reference.\u00a0The first things I scrubbed in were the sky and the falls in white on my red ochre ground, once that was established this\u00a0was very straightforward to paint.<\/p>\n .<\/p>\n This is the path to the waterfall, I loved the mossy tree choked gorge with the sound of the water rushing below. I painted this over a couple of evenings\u00a0as it was close by, so I took a slightly more measured approach to building up the tones which gives the picture a softer look.<\/p>\n .<\/p>\n More waterfalls! This another of those magical Lake District valleys called for some reason Tom Gill running down from Tarn Hows. A delicious spot\u00a0to sit and paint especially as the weather had changed entirely and become warm and sunny. It’s very tempting to over do water so it is of the utmost\u00a0importance to keep it loose and expressive and not get hooked on the detail however beguiling it might be.<\/p>\n .<\/p>\n Lake Windermere at the end of the day. Started a little late and it was almost dark when I put the last details of the boats.<\/p>\n .<\/p>\n Late in the day on Ullswater, a much painted view I suspect, it was done by Turner I know. He had cattle in the lake in the foreground… but they would\u00a0have drowned I reckon! I had to paint this very briskly as the light was going fast so all dine in forty minutes or so. I did it on a dirty raw sienna ground\u00a0which I rather liked against the blues.<\/p>\n .<\/p>\n This was a wonderful day. I walked up from Haweswater to Small Tarn, a stiff climb with all my gear. At the top I was rewarded by this view the shapes\u00a0and the way the light simplified the shadow was a delight. The only technical challenge was the water, getting the feeling of the stony bottom running\u00a0under both the reflected sky and mountain areas. This sort of scene you have to be very careful in getting your tones right and I did several tests on the\u00a0back of another sheet before committing to the paper.<\/p>\n .<\/p>\n After doing the lake I back tracked a little to do this. I know another waterfall, I can only apologise. This was quite hard to paint, getting the relative\u00a0tones was very tricky. To some degree you can “choose” what colours to see in a scene.In the previous one I saw the purples which took the pasture\u00a0towards yellow. Here I chose to pick up on the Ultramarines which moved the grasses towards the green. But all the tones in this were aimed at one\u00a0thing which was to give enough tonal leeway to express the sunlit waterfall and make it really sparkle. In the end I spent more time mixing tones and\u00a0hues than I did in actually applying the paint to the board!<\/p>\n .<\/p>\n I dumped my oil painting gear down a crack as it was just too much to haul any further. There was nobody about and I had the hills pretty much to\u00a0so I though it safe enough, though I carefully took a photo of the place I hid it so I could pick it upon my descent! This is Small Tarn seen from high up\u00a0it was fun deciding the relative tones and hues of the shadows as they grew distant.<\/p>\n .<\/p>\n A last one for the day, I was dog tired by now but couldn’t resist this view of Haweswater as was nearly back to where I started.<\/p>\n .<\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/p>\n<\/p>\n