CHERRY HUNT

CHERRY HUNT...PRE CHRISTMAS TRIP TO YOUNG

Mid December we drove out to Young, through the glorious blonde paddocks. What a bumper year for wheat, I hope the farmers harvested in time. The heat was building up during the day...and the flies. I guess they have had big thunderstorms since then.

We sat in a few paddocks, (Kate painting, Peter reading). As long as we didn't do anything too strenuous we could cope with the heat. The longer you sit in one spot and stay quite still, the closer the birds, insects and surrounding wildlife come into our circle. Wonderful sounds, so different to the coast... till a huge truck roars past sending up clouds of dust. Ahh the serenity!

In this series of paintings from the paddocks of Young, I painted three scenes on one canvas. Have a look also at the quick oil sketches and one small canvas of a scene where we were located looking up a slight hill, from cultivated fields to scrubby bush.


Small canvas, a bit of time spent on this one...Looking uphill




Oh another crooked photo! Oil sketch of hay bails in paddocks




Oil Sketch, looking up that hill again




Oil sketch , same hill



Three scenes on one canvas  (sorry, a bit crooked!)... experiment. I think it needs some more work.


Young is a beautiful country town, loaded with great pubs, an amazingly large range of shops and a prosperous population. The produce is spectacular... figs in February, nectarines, peaches and cherries in December, wine etc etc AHHH

These photos are from the actual scenes I painted, plus the one at left,  with the summer colours of the landscape. Photo of hay bails and church at the top of this post are also scenes in the paintings.



That hill ...in real life