work in progress...

Work in progress!

Looking through a pile of paintings I have done over the years I rediscovered this one:

Still on the full-imperial stretcher this watercolour sketch of the local woods encouraged me to get the easel out again and have a go with the oil-pastels I have been accumulating. I went back to the woods and had another look, then began work.

A day or two later this was the point I had reached:

I felt it was starting to come together, but there was still a great deal to be done. The background was more defined but at this point it felt very flat and confused.

More work:

Now there was a path in the foreground and some plants to lead the eye into the centre. The sky was given a warmer horizon and the church spire moved from the centre of the painting. I now began to address the trees again. They were without form and needed refining. I started to realign some of the branches and twigs in the top right and address the leaves. They needed to "clump" more to give the illusion of space.

This is the position I have now reached:

There is still a long way to go, but the trees are at last beginning to have some form and interplay.