Knock on wood

Snowdrops at Cliveden

After a brief respite from painting trees, during which I turned to Snowdrops at Cliveden (completed pictured above), at the beginning of week four of my six-week sabbatical, I am back in the thick of it again. 'Ancient tree, Burnham Beeches' (16"x12") is now done and I am getting on with two more  paintings inspired by the beauty and variety of Burnham Beeches. One will be titled something like 'Tall trees, Burnham Beeches' and is portrait shaped for a change, while the other is called  'Big tree, Burnham Beeches', and has unusually long branches -  I'm rapidly becoming an expert on such matters, or perhaps just 'barking' mad.

Following a weekend away from the easel I came back to it refreshed Monday morning, however, I've found that I can't paint for more than an hour, so I take a lot of breaks. I could probably carry on for longer if I listened to music, but I've tried this before and have found that I lose concentration and the end results suffers.

Ancient tree, Burnham Beeches

 Here are pictures showing the progress of the latest paintings. Swapping between two paintings seems to be working well. It probably helps to see faults or areas for improvement when I get away from a picture.

Tall trees, Burnham Beeches

 

Tall trees

 

Big tree, Burnham Beeches

These two are proving quite enjoyable to paint, probably because the compositions work well, and the fact that it wasn't a lovely sunny day casting great shadows, but a dull autumn one, doesn't seem to detract from the painting, in my opinion. However, I am tempted to add some blue to the sky in the latter picture.....