It was a lovely day, as all this week has been, and I thought it would be a good idea to go back to a favourite tree of mine, which I have painted in the past and is always so much fun. Old, yes. Roughly textured, certainly. But it was the crazy angle it had adopted in it’s old age which made it stand out and gave it so much character. Not only a gift for a painter but no-one with a camera or a modern phone could resist it.
Over a busy main road, along a track, through one small village, through three fields heavy with buttercups, I anticipated how it would look, which angle would I paint it from ? I never imagined it wouldn’t be there at all ! Alas it is no more. Just a little stump, it’s majesty cut up and carted away on the back of a trailer, and not too long ago by the look of it. If only I had gone last week.
I walked on a little further and looked back. If the day was not to be wasted, I had to paint something even if it wasn’t what I had intended.
Graham Findlay Watercolours 