I've been itching to paint this scene since a family outing to the woods about a month ago. The afternoon sun was quite low, making the trees glow, and generating a network of cast shadows on the trunks. This track between the beech trees runs from one of the gaps in the banks of the iron age fort, out to the expanse of common beyond, and has to be one of my favourite spots.

I'm dithering a bit because I can't decide if it's finished or not. I feel there should be a lot more twigs and branches on the left-hand side, but I know it would be very easy to overdo it at this stage, so I'm thinking I should leave it alone! I might just add a bit more 'form' to the trunk with the big diagonal shadow though - looks a bit flat at the moment. I did practice trying to get the colours as close to true life as possible, but still haven't quite achieved the vivid greens I wanted to. Not sure the colour reproduction in the photo is very good, either.

Painted on a 1/4 sheet of Saunders Waterford 640gsm cold-pressed 'high white' - my biggest painting yet! The paper is lovely, but very thirsty! Colours used: French Ultramarine, Cobalt blue, Winsor Yellow, Burnt Sienna, Raw Sienna, Light Red, Permanent Rose and a touch of Naples Yellow.

Here's one of the two reference photos I used. I was originally going to include the gate posts, but decided against it in the end as the left-hand one would have obscured some of the roots if I'd kept it the correct size.

Very happy to hear your thoughts, particularly on whether to add more twigs/leaves etc!