There are many visual highlights to experience when living in the heart of a working countryside environment. One of the best for me is during late summer, when many of the fields have finally been cut and combined, and the golden stubble that remains briefly before ploughing , seems to light up the entire landscape. Distant hillsides and their woodland margins appear to glow in the summer light, and as the shadows lengthen, these features become even more dramatic and as the details of the trees and hedgerows get lost in the encroaching evening light.
I have attempted to convey this with ' September Shadows', and in particular it was ' Late Summer Fields', that began to lead me to the compositional direction that I have made in two of my most recent paintings. Through a process of selection and refinement I have arrived at a point where the paintings are now becoming more subjective, "Gathering Shadows" and "Late Summer Evening"', both represent a departure from my previous paintings, but I believe the essential elements are present, though in a semi -abstracted way.