Towards the Bluebell Wood

This pastel painting started out as a small pastel sketch from a photo that was taken almost twenty years ago. This was next door to where I grew up on the Isle of Wight. Within the big clump of trees is a bluebell wood which was covered in a carpet of violet purples and blues every spring.

It was my intention to paint a wild and gestural work, in a similar style to my New Zealand studies with the photo as my reference. However, the English and New Zealand countryside are far too removed from each other and the outcome was more traditional.

Here are the stages I took to produce this work, you will see the moments of ‘wildness’ in mark making and how this was calmed and more-or-less covered once the final pastel layer was completed.