Watership Down Oil on Canvas

On a beautiful sunny frosty morning last winter I was driving through Watership Down and had to pull off the road to capture the stunning countryside around me with my camera. Little did I know that these photographs would become the inspiration for my very first attempt at painting with oils. 

In my painting titled “Frosty Morning on Watership Down” I wanted to not only capture the natural beauty of this composition but invoke the senses to “feel” the chill in the air and the glimmer of warmth from the hazy winter sun, silhouetting the vegetation. I chose muted and subtle colours for the teasels, cow parsley, nettles and grasses and used delicate brush strokes to create the frosty spiderweb detail. 

Painting with oils was definitely a little intimidating at first as I had always painted in watercolours.  Since it has more pigment in it, oils are a great medium for rich and vivid effects. And because they can stay wet for days or weeks it makes it easier to continue mixing colours for several days to produce subtle colour variations, which I was able to achieve in this painting.  

This original oil on canvas is SOLD but I do have prints available upon request. Please click here to visit my website for more examples of my art collection.