Over The Hill

Acrylic on Canvas. 14" X 18"

As promised, this is the first of the latest set of paintings I have done. I hope that you would agree with me in that this painting does show a marked improvement over the previous paintings I have posted.

What's going on?!?

I have been feeling a bit poorly of late but I do have some new paintings to showcase, I just haven't photographed them yet. I am very excited about these new paintings, it shows a great improvement all around and I feel I can achieve a lot more. Nevertheless, fate tends to intervene in situations that seem to be good and I can't achieve any more because I can't afford to buy canvases for new paintings.

Being stricken unemployed by the financial crisis and unable to find work for the past 18 months has in some ways been a great motivator for me to try and improve my artwork, find my direction and sell some paintings so I can get off of benefits. In a more practical sense it has been a hindrance for my art, as I am restricted in materials I can purchase and time I can spend painting as I look for actual paid work. It is a heady and strange mix of hope and despair. Nevertheless, as much as I would love to keep up the pace of my painting, I will probably be producing a lot less paintings now.

My day out photos - Part 5 (Final)

Here are the final five photos I picked out from my little trip out.

A second bridge opposite the one shown in the previous post.

This pigeon was gracious enough to wait patiently whilst I got a good shot of it perched on this dead tree. It's one of those things you see and instantly think "that would make a great photo".

Found a little watering hole with quite a few large dragon flies around it. I don't see dragon flies too often and it was really difficult to get a decent picture of them. This is the best I could do.

At this point I felt I exhausted the potential of the nature reserve for that day and decided to head back home. This photo is actually the path I took and despite the appearance, there is a track there (clearly been unused for a considerable amount of time).

On the way back home I caught site of this house sitting atop a small hill and thought that it just begged to photographed.

Well, that's it for the photos. I hope you enjoyed them.

My day out photos - Part 4

I thought the look of this dead tree was great with the sunlight catching it as it loomed over the tree tops. Getting a good shot of it through the canopy was difficult, but I think this makes for an interesting photo nonetheless.

I was just about to the leave the shade by the river and enter the nature reserve at this point. I feel the contrast of the shade under the canopy and the bright sunlight out in the open feels is effectively demonstrated in this photo.

Butterflies are difficult to photograph if the won't stay still.

I know this image is blurry and I would have deleted it, if it were not for the crisp sharpness of the few blades of grass at the foreground (which the camera decided to focus on instead of what I intended). I don't know why, but I like it.

I thought that this was very visually interesting. I may use this photo in the future for a painting.

My day out photos - Part 3

The continuation of my photos, this time taken from the southern side of the river, featuring an interesting tree stump bathed in light, the bank on which there was a second track, an obstruction on the higher track when it briefly ventured out into the sunshine, a picture of the canopy and another picture of the riverside. I hope you enjoy these.

My day out photos - Part 2

On this trip to the river I decided to walk on the north bank for the first time. I knew that I could only follow it so far and it'd be a harder walk but I thought I'd get some interesting photos so it would be worth it. It was, I got some great reference pictures including the photos below. It was a very sunny and hot day and where the river starts at the spring right up to the entrance to the nature reserve, the river and the path beside are completely shaded by the trees (which I was thankful in the hot weather). I also managed to get some excellent photos utilising where the light managed to get through the foliage, getting some pictures with wonderful contrast. I hope you enjoy these.

My day out photos - Part 1

Out of the 250 photos I ended up with at after deleting several duplicates and blurred photos, I selected 23 that I thought were good pieces of photography. Here are the first three that were at the start of my walk.

Less than five minutes out of my house I spotted three birds happily perching on this hedge row. I had to be quick in getting the camera out to take a photo and they did actually all fly away before I could take a snap shot. Luckily two of them landed together on the hedge again and I just managed to get a decent shot before they flew away again.

I had not been to the nature preserve taking a direct route from my house before and this path was all new to me. I have a thing for images of passage ways like this, I don't know why.

A nice example of some of the country side that surrounds my home town.