Winter Garden

Disappointed today that it began to rain quite heavily after a bright start and especially after I had packed my bags and set off with the intention of painting outside. Instead I had to return to my studio and find something else. With the cat esconsed in his own cosy corner I found myself standing at the glazed doorway glumly looking out on the rain-soaked garden looking for inspiration. Then I remembered a sketch of the garden I made some time ago and thought... * ...(that * is the little spark of a thought germanating in my brain!) "What I would like to do is paint a scene of the garden in winter". And here's the end result:

Oils on primed cardboard, 20x15cm: Still working small and laying the paint on as far as possible with single strokes of the brush, and also the palette knife, having simplified the image almost to abstraction.
Below is the intial sketch drawing, and below that a series of colour studies some of which I think are better than the final painting so I think there is a lot more mileage in this subject to get to the final, final statement.

Pencil on paper, A5: Original sketch drawing.

Neocolour on paper, A5: Colour Study 1. I should mention here that the bird table and trees have been omitted and replaced by my memory of a cane construction I set up to support my peas. It was the bright orange lines I wanted to give that dash of bright colour and provide some good verticals and a horizontal.

Neocolour on paper, A5: Colour Study 2.

Neocolour on paper, A5: Colour Study 3. This is my favourite colour study and one that I will make another go of another day.