Winter Hedgerow

Well most paintings work out some don't, you have to take it on the chin and move on. The idea for "Winter Hedgerow" arrived out of the blue and I felt duty-bound to paint it. It's a follow-on from the recent small tree paintings which are studies for a larger upcoming one called "Dawn of The Hamadryad". This one was meant to be a low key piece kind of showing the complexity of Nature in an ordinary hedgerow, which it is.....but it lacks the lightness of touch that I was hoping for from using a way of painting that involved erasing highlights with a brush dipped in clean turpentine. Luckily I have only spent a few days on it and I must admit that I have learned something from doing it so all is not lost. 
Before going on to the larger painting I fancy doing a few looser, more expressive ones to have a break from the finicky brushwork of these recent tree pieces...and to put into practice those mantras that are stuck to my easel - "Lose Edges, Join Shapes!" and "It's The Painting Not The Place".
16" x 12" oil on linen.
There is a step-by-step progress through this painting in previous posts on this blog.