Harling Drove continued

Watercolour 10"x8"

It began to get cold, and now being about 9pm I packed up my oil pochade box and started back down the track. At one point, in a glade of trees, the setting sun was streaming through the trees and making attractive patterns on the bark of the silver birches. I had to stop.

I took a reference photo, left, but I always think it’s good if possible to sketch or paint something on the spot. Partly it helps you recreate the moment of joy when the scene first grabbed your attention when you are back in the studio, and partly because I then remember things that a photograph somehow doesn’t show. The photograph can’t lie, but neither does it have an opinion.

So this is a ten  minute watercolour I painted with pad and painbox spread out on the bonnet (hood) of the pickup.

The paintbox’s life also came to and end – after 25 years of use, but more of that tomorrow.

About these ads

~ by noelgarner on June 28, 2010.