Northern lights.

Lake at Cragside   Oils on canvas board   5 x 7 inches   

Cragside is in Northumberland and a place I visited a few years ago during a long weekend break.   At the entrance to the house and gardens was a large lake surrounded by trees.

I wanted to capture the atmosphere of the day in this painting by abstracting the elements a little.  Reality is never my intention, rather a loose impression of the place.

It was painted over two sessions which is unusual in my small paintings.  I like to finish and move on to the next piece.   This time I wanted to let the oils dry a little and add highlights later to keep the colours fresh.   Using a knife, I placed some white mixed with a spot of lemon yellow  and pulled it down the board to give an impression of cloud reflections.

A few dashes of colour for wild flowers and the job was done.