This is a textured acrylic painting on board of a wild hillside nearby. Sadly this has just been planted with young fir trees, so all the colour and wildlife I find there now will gradually disappear and ranks of dark conifers will blanket the place.
Diary
A cold, wet Spring has not hindered the growth in the garden – and the birds are busy inspecting and occupying the nest boxes. The trees and garden surrounding the cottage are full of birdsong – and birds – Blue tits, great tits, coal-tits, nuthatch, woodpecker, long-tailed tits, chaffinch and siskins. Kites wheel above and I saw the first swallow two days ago – but it was just a forerunner as none have come since. In the far fields there are lapwings calling; returned, thank goodness, after a brush with attempts to drain the land, which thankfully seems to have been only partially effective! And small groups of geese, not yet departed for the northerly climes of the summer months, are still passing overhead.
The studio is a hive of activity, with lots of work and tidying going on. At the moment I am painting many smaller landscape studies featuring undergrowth, fields and trees, like the one above. These are views and places I see daily around here. They are a continuing source of inspiration - as is the birdlife and the roe deer, which I commonly see, usually in the evenings when they come down to the water to drink. Some of the paintings will be framed and others simply mounted; ready for the fast approaching ‘Spring Fling’ open studios event, which is happening from 25th-27th May. The studio will be stuffed with work and the cottage, too, will lend a few walls – with teas served in the garden – weather permitting!
Meanwhile the winter and late spring colours interest me and inspire my work continually. The weather remains cold, yet the hedgerows and trees are green-ing up now. Bluebells carpet the loch-side at Woodhall and at last some serious gardening can be done on finer days!