The Badgers....

I don't know how other artists come up with their paintings and I guess like me they have  many influences.

I know I am inspired by my surroundings,by nature.I live in  Mid Devon ,it is a rural place with rolling hills and high hedges. Very beautiful , very quiet, and constantly changing. The past few days here have been wet and grey and unusually uninspiring, but the winter trees reaching their branches up into the grey sky  always amaze me. I think I prefer winter trees to summer ones and  on my walk I pass a clump of trees, covered in moss and ivy...

I see these trees every day and I have long wanted to paint them, as I walked on unfortunately there was a badger lying in the road. I was so sad to see the creature lying there but even in death he looked magnificent. I know there are mixed feelings amongst farmers and rural communities about badgers but whatever side you are on surely you can't fail to see them as beautiful animals.

Passing the trees on my return I knew what I was going to paint today....and in my mind anyway bring the badger back to life.

And so to suit the grey, day and the winter landscape, I paired everything right down and just used Paynes Grey.

I get lost in paintings like these and I love to let the water do the work for me, there are lost edges and everything is painted tonally.I wanted the badgers to become part of the trees. A part of Mid Devon, and so that is waht happened

That is how this particular painting came to be....