Lilac Trees II Painting

The 'Lilac Trees' are a line of mature beeches overlooking the Chew Valley, in Somerset UK. These became the source of intense fascination and focus for much of late winter and early spring of 2014/15. Hundreds of sketchbook studies, painted and drawn, were created, along with a number of larger scale gouache diptychs and oil paintings. Gouache on two sheets of 600gsm acid free watercolor paper, each measuring 56cm x 76cm. The two panels of the Lilac Trees II dyptich would benefit from being float mounted against a white background with a 5/6mm gap between panels. Key to the realization of these scaled up gouache diptychs is the extensive amount of study carried out before hand. In order to paint at this scale en plein air one must work quickly, accurately, and decisively. The little nuances and subtle mark makings with the brush are a like a vocabulary, built up over time through investigative study of the subject. This painting was exhibited in Bristol at a solo show of paintings in December 2015.