Fine Shade Woods!

Had a great opportunity early in March to get outside with my pastels, paints, a good friend, and a flask of hot coffee! A misty start cleared to gorgeous sunshine, perfect for painting in the trees of Fine Shade Woods.

Faye is an extraordinary artist, so was a little afraid at first to put pen to paper in her presence... but soon got over myself.

Started with using oil pastels to get a feel for colours, shape and textures. Was quite fun just to play with this and loosen up. Haven't been outside painting since A-level art days - crazy really. Loved setting up my paints, water and paper out in the fresh air - felt a million times easier to be creative.

It is amazing having this woodland on our doorstep. Fine Shade woods is part of Rockingham Forest. It's  an ancient mixed broadleaf and conifer woodland. I love the feeling of being so small surrounded by these huge ancient trees. 

Loved the way the sunlight was casting such long shadows across the woodland floor and wanted to capture this. I began by lightly penciling a selection of the trees nearby.

I spent some time observing the skyline and background. The Lincolnshire countryside rolls across behind the trees and I carefully painted this in pure coloured segments of rust, green, yellow, and orange, changing to a light brown in the foreground, leaving the trees white. This created a great sense of depth straight away and a great backdrop for these huge old trees.

As I began to paint in some of the shadows on the tree trunks I loved the effect this had, and picked out the main colour of each trunk to create a more stylised look.

I had a decision to make as to how much of the trees to paint in, and what to leave white - I didn't want the drama of this depth to disappear by adding too much detail.

I decided to retain some of the white, almost skeletal trees, and to create more colour and detail on the others. I think this creates a sense of drama, and depth, which really captures the forests nature. There's also a sense of spring colour coming into the bare winter woodland.

Once I'd got the watercolour finished, I began to create outlines and texture in black pen. Really pleasing finished result, and I do feel I've found a niche with this water colour style. Will definitely do some more work in this style. 

Ready for framing. A gift for friends new home!