This week past can only be described as a week of contradictions.

It is no secret that I consider composition and landscape painting to be my weakest. Yes, I have tried and slowly seem to improve but often it causes me no less than heartache when I fail to achieve a sense of atmosphere so of course I have had to challenge myself and paint more! I have painted three landscapes this week, and I am disappointed with the results despite the fact that, for the first time, I enjoyed painting them! I was relaxed and didn’t stress about details. I wanted to paint without conscious deliberation, thinking that maybe, my organic response to the environment would shine through.

Within the last fortnight I have created a series of paintings designed for Christmas cards. Whilst the heat is causing people and plants to wilt outside, I have been pre-occupied painting snow scenes!

Then the third contradiction; I had been planned to visit lavender fields in Kent as inspiration for another painting, the blooms were a bit later this year due to the recent heavy rainfall so it will have to be postponed a week or two so on our day off Ed and I went on a search for poppy field instead! It turned out that we were a week or so too late, the poppy blooms are declining but as a consolation, we stopped at a field that was so beautiful we had to admire! We took photographs, wandered around exclaiming at the stunning blues and purples that spread beyond us towards a border of poplar trees that made me feel we were standing within an impressionist painting. It was whilst we were driving away discussing our appreciation for having seen such a beautiful landscape that I read on Google that the plant we had admired was Echium Plantagineum, otherwise known as Paterson’s Curse due to its status as an invasive weed that can cause fatal poisoning to livestock and skin irritations to humans!

So, a week of irony but nonetheless there have been days full of inspiration and artistic learning. I’m stubborn so I’m going to persist with my landscape painting with the thought that, one man’s (or animal’s) poison can still be a visual treasure and I think I will enjoy painting the blue field nonetheless. It won’t be lavender that will evoke thoughts of sweet fragrance and the happy buzz of bees but I fulfilled my wish to stand amongst a field of hues so I can’t complain!