I took advantage of a few days of heavy frost to return to a favourite subject. A view along a hedgerow leading up to a cottage with a red roof which I had painted in late summer of 2021, here . Now my challenge was to use the shadows and sunlit areas to create a strong value pattern that led up to the main subject. The crystals of ice that had grown daily clung on to the rough vegetation, except where exposed to sunshine for hours. There were plenty of muted colours in the shadow areas, and the vertical telephone poles were sharply lit on one side as the sun moved across the cold blue sky.

This painting is a different format to the summer version, extended to the right hand side. I had been working very quickly which gave the brushwork plenty of energy, similar to when painting with an imposed time limit. I find that to be good practice, preventing me from fussing over details.
After about an hour and a quarter I started to feel the cold, despite standing in the sun, and decided to stop.

I decent result. The feeling of cold comes across well – not just because I experienced it – as does the thin air and quality of late morning December light. A decent result.