John Connolly: Painting in the New Forest.

Tuesday 1 November 2011

Painting in the New Forest.

As I am currently producing a body of work with working title of 'If you Go Down to the Woods Today' I decided to make a return visit to the New Forest. Having been there for 4 days in June, I decided to go back to paint the Autumn. It seems that I probably went a month early... as most of the leaves are still green, with only the bracken showing real autumn colour. Unfortunately most of the camp sites, if not closed already will be closed within the next two weeks ;-(

As I wasn't camping in Hollands Wood (it was closed) I decided to concentrate on Whitley Wood and spent all 5 days immersed in this amazing ancient wood, surrounded by Ponies, Deer and the occasional family of pigs... by the end of the week, some of them had names... Tantric Ted, the Rutting Deer being one of them...

I was very pleased with how my work developed throughout the week. After the first two days I began to loosen up in an attempt to capture the atmosphere rather than being too representational. Lots of artistic licence in terms of colour to try and create an autumn feel to my work. The reason I was there.