More oil paintings for the "Water, Water everywhere" exhibition...

It's been over a year (may well be even longer) since I last visited this location but in the past it has provided some good subject matter to paint. It's the River Welland and this section is the border between the counties of Rutland and Northamptonshire (the middle painting is on the Northamptonshire bank) not far from the village of Duddington.

Detail from "Snow covered teasels", Rutland. Oil.
Alistair Butt © 2014 - #AB 021412

A heavy (for this part of the world anyway) fall of snow (over night) and then clear sky provided the ideal conditions and it took on more than a few seconds to work out what I would be doing for the day... looking for snow related subjects. The snow stuck to every thing which was very nice, hence the teasels in the foreground of the painting.

Detail from "Bright day with Hoar frost and snow", Northamptonshire. Oil.
Alistair Butt © 2014 - #AB 021413

This view is from the opposite bank but a few mts/ft back. The downside of getting onto the opposite side at this time (winter) of year (increase in water level) is the walk back into the village and then out onto the other bank. In summer, with 'usual' lower water levels and a pair of wellingtons helps with wade across the stream and therefore half the walk.

A quick look, one may think these two paintings were done from the same day but they are in fact a year apart. The above had the added interest of hoar frost covering the trees and vegetation with snow from a few days before.

Detail from "Morning sun on frosty ground", Rutland. Oil.
Alistair Butt © 2014 - #AB 021409

The top two paintings location is just behind the left hand tree. This morning it was very cold, more cold than the snow paintings with a good covering of frost but thankfully as the sun rise into the sky a lovely warm glow enveloped the landscape in front of me. What more could a landscape artist ask for...