Plein-air painting
Oil on linen-faced board in a light wood tray frame 18 x 24 cm (21 x 27 cm frame)
On the shore of the reservoir with the ranger's team collecting the litter from the night before! I ignored the plastic waste to focus on the plants surviving at the water's edge.

Plein-air painting
Oil on linen-faced board in light wood tray frame 24 x 18 cm (27 x 21 cm frame)
A line from Burns 'On A Bank Of Flowers.' Harlaw on August evenings heaved with wild camping, leaving a morning-after feel. Morning sun reflected off the water glimpsed through the trees. There is a familiar but eerie sense of being seen, hiding, naughtiness.

Oil on board, plein air painting
18 x 24 cm (21 x 27 cm frame)
Penicuik House Estate gave permission for a group from Penicuik Arts Association to paint in the wildlife area normally closed to the public - thank you!
The lily pad floated, the reflections floated, the ground and trees seem to float above the reflections. I was interested in how the bright colours of the lily pad could sit within the muted colours of the lake, rendered in a very limited palette.

Plein-air painting
Oil on linen-faced board in a light wood tray frame 24 x 18 cm (27 x 21 cm frame)
Ah the heat - I enjoyed sitting on a bench in the shade beside the ridged and whorled bark of the huge tree. I worked on a burnt sienna background which affected the way I painted the bright sunlit scene beyond.

Plein-air painting
Oil on linen-faced board in a light wood tray frame 24 x 18 cm (27 x 21 cm frame)
In the afternoon, still enjoying the heat and taking a simpler approach, eyes scrunched to try not to see too much detail! The texture of the bark when sat under the tree seems quite light but the bright scene beyond pushed me to paint the bark darker. This time I worked on a yellow background and felt more cheerful!

Plein-air painting
Oil on linen-faced board in a light wood tray frame 24 x 18 cm (27 x 21 cm frame)
The bench under the walnut tree, viewed from the sunny lawn. I had enjoyed the shade there the day before. Looking back at the same place, diverted by the bright details of a pot of geraniums. Three colours + white painted over a yellow background.

Plein-air painting
Oil on linen-faced board in light wood tray frame 24 x 18 cm (27 x 21 cm frame)
Late August afternoon. The bench bowered by the walnut tree, viewed from the sunny lawn became an unconscious focus and took on an otherworldly blue. I was trying to limit the number of brush strokes, to link gesture with form. Three colours + white painted over a black background.

Plein-air painting
Oil on linen-faced board in a light wood tray frame 24 x 18 cm (27 x 21 cm frame)
Sitting on a sunlit lawn, head on to the layering of the herbaceous border and bench backed by a sandstone wall, with the glasshouse behind and bright sky. A very urgently painted image, all the better for that. I enjoy the swirls of paint of the ornate metal bench.

Oil on linen-faced board in light wood tray frame 24 x 18 cm (27 x 21 cm frame)
September morning painting with friends. The former Roslin Curling Pond is natural-unnatural oasis near a busy roundabout!
I found the title from Hole Ouisa’s film about the pond: a quote from Vladimir Nabokov:
“I could also distinguish the glint of a special puddle ... an oblong puddle invariably acquiring the same form after every shower because of the constant spatulate shape of a depression in the ground. Possibly something of the kind may be said to occur in regard to the imprint we leave in the intimate texture of space.”

Plein-air painting
Oil on linen-faced board in light wood tray frame 24 x 18 cm (27 x 21 cm frame)
I started this painting about half an hour before the garden was closing, very bold strokes in thick paint. I kept waiting for the paint to dry and went back several days later. The leaves had almost all gone and I painted their ghosts.
A challenge to find the right tone for the sky beside the shadowed white roof truss and window wall. I started this minutes before the garden closed, very bold strokes in thick paint. I waited for the paint to dry, went back several days later. Almost all the leaves had fallen and I painted their ghosts. A challenge to find the right tone for the sky beside the shadowed white roof truss and window wall. The title is from Emily Bronte's poem "Fall, leaves, fall; die, flowers, away; Lengthen night and shorten day; Every leaf speaks bliss to me Fluttering from the autumn tree..."

Plein-air painting
Oil on linen-faced board in a light wood tray frame 18 x 24 cm (21 x 27 cm frame)
In the glasshouse, Prunus Armenica Alfred, the apricot tree. I drew it in oil pastel, returned a couple days later to paint it, delighted to find the same leaf posed on the edge of the terracotta pot. I loved the crazed bark.

Plein-air painting
Oil on linen-faced board in light wood tray frame 24 x 18 cm (27 x 21 cm frame)
A stunning blue sky plus gusting winds! I sat against the trunk of an old decayed tree trunk which swayed creakily as I painted and clung onto my painting and palette!

Plein-air painting
Oil on linen-faced board in a light wood tray frame 18 x 24 cm (21 x 27 cm frame
I was drawn to the colour of the tree and only later appreciated the intricacies of the 17th century sundial, with its turquoise weathered metal gnomons. Its stillness counterpointed the flurries of falling leaves - my initial underpainting had far more leaves! At first the day seemed strangely dark and still - I later heard there had been a partial eclipse before the bright sky appeared.

Plein-air painting
Oil on linen-faced board in a light wood tray frame 18 x 24 cm (21 x 27 cm frame
Afternoon, on the shore at Harlaw. I included the longer-lasting trace left by last night's campers, the scorch marks of a disposable barbecue. I love trying to make sense of nature's clutter of stems and leaves.

Plein-air painting
Oil on linen-faced board in light wood tray frame 24 x 18 cm (27 x 21 cm frame)
In the afternoon, the same scene as the morning painting but more light on the water. For the first time, I have substituted a definite colour of equivalent tonal value to the brightness of the water. I think the yellow adds to the other-worldness of the scene.

lein-air painting
Oil on linen-faced board in a light wood tray frame 24 x 18 cm (27 x 21 cm frame)
Penicuik House Estate kindly permitted a group from Penicuik Community Arts Association to paint in the wildlife area normally closed to the public. Sitting by the High Pond, the air filled with the trilling of Little Grebes. Layers of far trees, further trees, hills with shifting shadows.