I’ve just completed Pathways – a landscape I was commissioned to paint during Cambridge Open Studios in July. In discussing what the clients wanted, I put together a painting plan. The painting should be in the blue/green colours, have no buildings, include an interesting sky, and a pathway – or two.

Elements in Pathways
This painting takes the viewer for a gentle walk with countryside features along the way.

Heading over the brow of the hill, a patch of hogweed waves in the breeze. Look carefully at the stems below, and you may find a spiderweb suspended between two stalks.

Look through the long grasses to the fields below. Grass seed heads blow. Spores dance in the breeze. As you progress along the route, terraced hillsides and fields of golden crops appear. Hedges and pathways criss-cross the land. Tree copses and woodlands fringe the farmlands laid out neatly in the distance.

Until finally, the lake appears. Trees on the bank are reflected in the still water. Wander further to the right and over the rise next to the trees on the horizon. There are hills beyond, and more fields to explore.