Cloud Gazing Through Trees, 2023

This painting was inspired by looking up at trees near my home in the Peak District. Sunlight plays through beautiful leaves, revealing a clear sky beyond the branches. This is a meditative and calming painting, with some tones of ultramarine and rich copper. An original artwork, one of a kind, this painting has been created with high-quality acrylic paints on deep-edged canvas. I begin with observation of the place, making notes and taking photographs to work from in the studio. From these beginnings I work intuitively, painting some base layers with a brush and then impasto techniques, layer on layer, applied with a palette knife. I harness optical mixing techniques employed by the Impressionists and some of the methods of the Old Masters, such as scumbling and glazing. I continue working until the painting reaches a natural conclusion. The result is a contemporary painting, which lies somewhere between abstraction and realism. The painting continues round the sides; a frame is not needed and it is ready to hang.