Mowsbury hill fort this afternoon. The fallen ash trunk is split and the its rotten core is covered with dead leaves. Some of the tree has been sawn into logs and left as home and hotel for bugs. This is the work of the Mowsbury conservationists and much appreciated by the woodpecker - or Mr Yaffle, as he is known by some. A pine stands at the other side of the ditch, surrounded by scrub of nettle, elder and hawthorn. Fox and rabbit live there, just above the golf driving range. It is a blissfully unfrequented sanctuary - a good place to walk during lockdown. I felt my site painting was becoming stale, and too dependent on photographs. So I decided to draw outside. It's a stabilising discipline. I find chalk and charcoal a very forgiving medium because I can approach a subject from both its light and its shade - and that allows for corrections. I started tentatively, gradually increasing pressure for effect - such as the foreground. And I tried to make the neutral green paper create the mid-tones. Unfortunately the light went before I could finish. |