Portrait of a young girl

After a series of charcoal studies I like to work with oils on un-primed paper. The absorbency of the paper gives a softness that cannot be matched

Life study

Life study Oil on paper 420 x 296 mm

Numb fingers

I had to paint these small paintings quickly to avoid frostbitten fingers. I would like to think that there is a certain circularity in their fabrication. Some of the fields are used to grow linen. I would like to think that the linen on which the paintings are painted came from these or nearby fields. The linen was certainly bought from a local linen business.

Before the arrival of the frost

Before the arrival of the frost & snow there was a fantastic display of colour both in the vegetation and the freshly worked field. Colour also extended to the multitude of agricultural machinery. Always a sucker for a bright red tractor.

Autumn Reaches the Pays de Caux

The change in colours of the landscape is remarkable as well. Dark sombre skies with low bright shafts of sunlight.

There is a huge amount of activity harvesting sugar beet and the sugar factory is working 24/7. The sangliers (wild boar) seem to gorge themselves on the sugar beet stacks by the roadsides at night and can be quite a hazard.

What a contrast a Few weeks later.

A few weeks later it was a different story on the beach with a sharp North Easterly wind from Angleterre. The colours became colder to match the weather and the whole aspect changed with the first of the autumn migratory birds arriving.

One fine day in September

The end of September had on or two very fine warm days when the beach was almost deserted and was ideal for sitting down & making a few small paintings.

A TASTE OF THINGS TO COME

The fine autumn weather of September & October changed in November and we got our share of a taste of winter with snow & sub zero temperatures but not the transport chaos of the UK. However the dogs seem to cope and after their walks hog the new wood burning stove that was installed just over a week ago. The installation was not without incident but it was in and running in the nick of time before the snow.