I’m making the most of the last weeks of warm weather and getting out painting as much as possible. Alton Barnes is a very special place. No matter what time of day or day of the year, I can guarantee that the same view will feel different. 

As we near Autumn proper, I’m conscious of the fact that my colours are deepening from those in the glowing Springtime pictures. And yet, even in the depths of Winter, there is always colour around.

I think you have to look harder. It’s the colour and the shapes that move me, and the fact that I’m just ‘taken away’ by the place in which I’m sat.

I’m also using the white spirit more to mark/ flood the painting to create these disturbances/ disruptions which look like an accident. I enjoy seeing the painting with a ‘ruin’. It also seems (to me) to say, ‘This work is transient, fragile, tainted, broken. And yet there is beauty there in that scar.’

This time I took my dog (Moshi – a Border Terrier), and she enjoys a good view as well. Perhaps I’ll get her to paint next time.

Oil on Khadi paper (top and middle), and canvas (bottom).

JM