Back in early/mid March I sat down to paint and thought that rather than attempting a 'big' painting I'd do a few little sketches of different scenes, as a bit of a warm up. So I divided a large-ish sheet in a block of Saunders Waterford Rough into four sections, and painted the scene on the top-left - a view from our local common, from a family walk one afternoon. I was drawn to the long shadows cutting across the path, leading into the distance like rungs on a ladder. I ended up having to move the tape so I could fit more in, as I hadn't planned the composition. I quite liked the outcome, so thought I'd try it again, to work on a few aspects I wasn't so keen on - top-right. Liked the fore/mid ground this time, but not the tree line, so bottom-left was trying to work on that. Then another go bottom-right, to get more aerial perspective on the distant hills by toning down the colour a bit.

I felt the composition needed a bit of work if I was going to turn it into a bigger piece, so I did a pencil sketch and included a tree on the left, for more interest.

I started the final painting about a month ago, and finally got round to finishing it last Friday!

Am I happy with it? Reasonably, but I think I spent so long working on it on-and-off that I was a bit sick of it by the end! There are parts of each painting I like, but I don't think they all came together in the final piece. I c ould have another go, but I think I need to move on! It was quite an interesting exercise though. Comments welcome!

Saunders Waterford Rough, painted area ~A4.