Stage three, not finished yet...

But on the way there - this again was taken with a flash, so certain parts of it, especially the lighter colours in the lone tree, are exaggerated. I don't want to add a lot more "drawing" with the brush; it's going to look dangerously overworked if I do. But I want to add some subtle glazes over the next few days, as the paint dries out. I've had to add - well, felt I had to add - a little work in Titanium White, in order to prevent it seeming excessively dark. I would have preferred to have started and finished in Flake White, but it just needed a little help. There may be the suggestion of a mast on the hill, as well, just to give a little more depth, interest, and balance the tree a bit. The glazing could well be where my limited palette idea falls down flat, since I'm almost bound to use a few more colours. But so far, this painting has seen Indian Red, Cadmium Red Deep, Raw Sienna, Yellow Ochre - wish I'd used Rowney's, which is a lot brighter - Indian Yellow, Cadmium Yellow, Naples Yellow, very small quantity of Sap Green, Pthalo Blue, Cobalt Blue, extremely small touches of Indigo, Mars Brown, and Vandyke Brown. So not that limited a palette, now I think about it... But: I always have used a wide range of colours in oil and acrylic, as opposed to watercolour - I know that limiting the range is said to bring harmony, but while I think that's true so far as the major masses are concerned, it comes close to masochism to restrict oneself to half a dozen colours, and quite honestly I think some make a bit of a fetish of it.

I shall have several days to let this dry, because I seem to have meetings to the end of the week: most of them to do with the health service, and the Government's latest White Paper, which contains proposals which I fear will lead to the privatization of health in England. Speaking of which, we have an Isle of Wight Council by-election in my Ward - the Labour candidate came to see me this evening to get me to propose him on the nomination paper; 18 years old.... This is far from being prime Labour territory, but I hope people will find the enthusiasm of a young man like this an encouragement to get out and vote. It would make a change to have a few young faces ... I'm especially pleased, because there was a horrible danger that I might have had to fight the seat myself if this young man hadn't come forward: and I'm getting far too old for this sort of thing; I've done it all in the past, but certainly don't want to be doing it into my dotage. Politics aside, it does you good to see a bit of ambition and optimism: and someone who's prepared to face a not necessarily receptive electorate and just have a go. Maybe you've got to be young to do it.... Nowadays, I'm much rather paint.