River walks September balsam
Sometimes I take a break from the woods and love to have a walk along the Towy River with my dog when there are no sheep or cattle in the fields. I have made the most of September to date as the fields have been mown and are empty of livestock….Sam can have a good run and I can get some lovely photos of the river and riverside flowers and trees to paint from. I like to take a small sketch book and pencil to make quick notes and jottings of things of interest.
Below are just a sample of some of the sketches I did. I loved the pinks of the himalayan balsam. It is very invasive and I am sure it is a problem for farmers but it is so pretty! When painting we all interpret what we see in front of us in different ways and pick out the things that interest us most. I loved the tangles of busy undergrowth, the tree shapes and of course the pinks. In my work here I used a variety of techniques including pen work, scraping out, masking fluid, sponge and lots of rigger work. I am becoming more and more interested in mark making and experimenting these days. I think I classify this work as sketches rather than paintings but don’t really know the difference. Perhaps sketches are used as a reference to do a ‘proper painting’ but for me I think the energy and spontaneity in what drew me to a subject can be lost in more considered work.
