Well hello there,

So, its is FINISHED – this behemoth painting that I have been working on for the better part of two months. Its, well, bright. What is surprising, though, is that it is not much more vivid than the actual photo used as its source. Yes, autumn in Algoma country (Ontario, Canada) really does look like this. No wonder this area inspires such moving landscape painting…

Once again, thank you Mitch for use of the image. For those of you living in Switzerland, you will know that the weather has not exactly made hiking attractive. As I write this there is torrential downpour. For this reason it was handy that I had the material, well, handy.

So, what do I think? Hmm. Well, there is something to working at a larger size. Paintings at this size are imposing and a lot harder to “hold together” in terms of colour and tone . Good exercise though, as it has been about three years since I did anything large. I actually quite like looking at this one – particularly from a distance. The next one I am to do (a commission) will be only slightly smaller, so I am psyching myself up for the mental hurdle of another big, empty canvas. But first a little break is in order…

Best wishes! – HD