I’m not complaining about being holed up for the past few months – making small painting studies of Herefordshire Landscapes and working on my new obsession with river scapes.
I am currently a little bit obsessed with River Wye images.
I grew up with the Wye at the bottom of my garden. It was the backdrop to my childhood. The walks by its banks to peer into dark water and the excitement of seeing the long shadow of a pike lounging in the shallows or a brief silver splash of feeding fish. The earthy river smell. The trill of a kingfisher. Fishing with my brother and finding there is nothing better than messing about, to quote from Wind in the Willows, in a small rowing boat. Swimming respectfully across its deep pulling depths and afterwards hot cups of tea on the riverbank. I realise how very very lucky I was.
We are all drawn to water and its ever changing spectacle of form and surface. Water is challenging to draw or to capture as a moving, changing, reflecting subject. I am rediscovering ink, wax candles, wax crayons and oil pastels to explore this subject and to see where it takes me.
