Botanical Gardens, Cambridge

 

Back in March, I visited the Botanical Gardens in Cambridge for the first time. While they are smaller than Kew Gardens, they have a wide variety of plants in several greenhouses, where I found these orchids.

I also loved the graceful fountain shimmering in the sunlight. This link will tell you more about it.

Mottisfont

 

Mottisfont is a National Trust estate near Romsey in Hampshire. My reference photos are from early March, when there were no leaves yet on the trees. 

Having painted them now (in April), I thought it would be nice to show the trees in blossom. This way, they make a nice contrast to the buildings in the background and generally stand out more from the other elements of the painting.

I have also moved the trees in the foreground closer together than they are in real life so they make a repeating pattern. In short, this painting is not a literal description of the place but how I feel about it.

Egyptian geese and Dover coast

 

A painting of Egyptian geese in dappled shade. I seem to come back to these scenes of light and shade.

The coastline of Dover, just beyond the harbour. 

When we visited in February, there were still hardly any cars crossing the channel, so the traffic was mostly lorries. This was also before the time P&O Ferries made their infamous move to sack 800 staff overnight, something I hope they won't get away with.

The reason we went to Dover was to see Dover Castle, which showcases history from the Middle Ages to the First World war, well worth a visit.

Wimpole Hall

 Wimpole Hall on an overcast day. It was a challenge to show form in light conditions with few shadows but I am quite pleased with the result.

While I haven't been able to travel far these last two years, I have enjoyed visiting places like Wimpole Hall at different times of the year and observe the changes the seasons bring. 

Autumn Trees

 

Especially at this time of year, it is good to get out and enjoy the sun when it makes an appearance, these two paintings remind me of a walk on  just such a sunny late autumn day.

Wrest Park

This is a side view of the Archer Pavilion at Wrest Park (an English Heritage property). Because of its name I wrongly assumed it had something to do with archery, but it is in fact the name of Thomas Archer, the architect that built it.

Out of sight to the right is a long lake that leads up to this pavilion and reflects its image in the water. The whole layout is very reminiscent of Versailles. 

The architecture is quite complex and needed some simplification in order not to get bogged down too much in the detail. The overall effect I wanted to achieve was to show the contrast of the shadowed and light side of the building.

I added some finials on the left roof line that are not actually there in real life, but I thought it improved the design of the building.

Pheasant

 

I was quite surprised to see so many pheasants at Wrest Park and have never had the chance to see them so close before. Their plumage really is astoundingly patterned and colourful, which was a pleasure to paint.

I painted the belly of the bird wet-into-wet (dropping paint into wet paint) and the back wet-against-wet (placing patches of paint next to each other, while still wet).