Buoyed by the enthusiastic response to my ‘Garden Village’ exhibition in early November of last year I immediately set about gathering ideas for my next collection of paintings.
In the weeks that followed I recorded gentle autumn landscapes of lengthening shadows and fading November colours that overnight in December were to be transformed into a winter monochrome by heavy snow. Venturing across the A40 that Sunday morning to observe and make note of the scene I quickly became a walking snowman and realised that for once the weather had beaten me.
January came and the countryside was awash with colours quite unexpected for the season. As the months rolled by each brought its own individual character. In March I was peppered with needles of ice blown from banks of drifted snow. April was to remind me that no two springs are the same in timing or detail. In May I saw numerous deer, the occasional fox, eavesdropped on the chatter of flocks of goldfinches and was subject to surveillance from above by ubiquitous kites.
Just as I thought that nature had exhausted all its permutations we entered into the soaring heat and withering drought of June and July - which once again totally changed the colour palette of the season, as well as bringing out the bonus of numerous butterflies. So in this November exhibition expect a very different set of images depicting Eynsham’s very own back garden across the A40.