Heron

Herons need to be painted in a loose way I think as they've got very loose feathering. I'll be posting a couple more images of these so-sculptural birds soon.

Mallard Duck

Another Baddesley Clinton inspired Mallard, this time a lady. It would be great to live in a place like Baddesley Clinton - a house with a real moat. Apparently it was a sort of writer's retreat in the 19th century which doesn't surprise me. It would be easy to be creative there I think.

If you've never been to this National Trust house it's an absolute must, if only for the excellent restaurant. And you can visit another fabulous Elizabethan mansion, Packwood House with its stunning topiary hedges and glorious mellow brickwork, just a couple of miles down the road.

Mallard Drake

Another long gap I'm afraid - Val's ankle is taking a while to heal and there's a lot to do. However, we did visit Baddesley Clinton, a fantastic Elizabethan moated manor house, and I was much taken by the very tame Mallards in the moat.

House portraits

Yep, I'm doing house portraits too now. I've just done this one of a fantastic ginger-bread cottage nestling in the woods near Silverstone. Sadly, this place is now derelict and I've had to recreate it from photos for the grand-daughter of the old couple who lived there 30 years ago.
I'll paint your house for a humble £150 inluding mount and frame!

'June Morning'

To buy

I rose early on Sunday and wandered across the fields. The sketch for this oil was made at 7.45 am and it was the strange catherine wheel-like cloud that caught my attention. It seemed to be spinning away into the horizon.

'Maggie - our Appenzeller chicken'

SOLD


Maggie, our Appenzeller bantam, is not entirely sane. She actually crows like a cockerel every morning and squawks constantly until she is released into the chicken run. We worry that the neighbours might complain but they seem to love her as much as we do. She is also a hero, the only chicken we have known to survive a fox attack! She prefers to fly up into a hedge to roost so we have to pick her up and put her in the coop every night to save her from Rufus.

'Ash Tree - Evening Light'

To buy

It's my jolly green giant again, this time still in the mellow light of a beautiful warm evening.
The slanting sun is catching the main limbs of the tree in places but the general effect is to flatten the the colour. Ash tree leaf colour is at the blue end of green, if that makes any sense. The Elder flowers are past their best but some still provide a little interest in the foreground