Dusk in the fens of Cambridgeshire and Lincolnshire is a magical time of day. Painting the fens at dusk has become my favourite time of day to study. The warmth of the last hour of the day, reflects down onto the landscape from the huge sky above. Out on a walk through the fields with my camera in hand I bask in the violet air.
The fens are a big place, usually when out and about discovering painting locations I’m miles away from any street lights, once that darkness falls, I’ll need a torch to make my way back to the car, the experience is usually a little unsettling. It is, though, the last moments before darkness falls that seem to offer up the most beautifully subtle colours.
A low and uncluttered horizon so often found in the flatlands of the fens gives us an extraordinary view of the rising moon as it drifts towards the heavens like a balloon. Dimly the moon illuminates the tonal landscape as the noise of distant commuters along the A roads fades.
In rich colours and dark foregrounds I paint the fenland landscape capturing those moments all too easily missed in our busy lives.
