Short hours of daylight

Short hours of daylight and day after day of grey skies have led me to install new LED spotlights in my studio. Transformation! I can now start work on painting or mounting or just pottering in the Studio after lunch and continue for as long as I like into the evening. I wonder now how I managed with those awful flat, dead, strip lights.

Still, the grey light has influenced my paintings. I have continued to walk, rain, drizzle, high winds all become quite pleasurable as long as I have on my comfortable walking boots, waterproof leggings and warm hooded jacket. On the downs or walking by the marsh, every thing smells so sweet and woody when it is wet and there is still colour to be seen on the greyest day. Orange pine needles underfoot, pale green or vivid ochre lichens on the bare hedges, rich umbers and purples in the wet bushes. I have turned to a palette of earth colours and restricted the blues to ultramarine which, when added to burnt sienna sings just the right note of sombre purple. These paintings are inspired by walks at Newtown Nature Reserve