Cattle grazing on the Westwood, Beverley. ( click image to see a short video )

 4th July 24, This is a large canvas 150 cm x 100 cm.

As the weather is again too windy to paint outside I decided to finish this large painting at home. It is an interesting picture as I created it from sketches. The grass on the Westwood at the moment is very tall producing shades of colour from almost white to pale pink, the ‘pig nut’ now turning from its  lace like umbel florets to dark maroon seeds. Occasionally in areas not ‘topped’ goatsbeard can be spotted with its elongated striped buds, soon followed by large round ‘dandelion’ seed-heads. This is a time when the wild rose growing through supporting hawthorn has just passed. On the Westwood at the moment, large congregations of house martins chitter around me as I  walk. They seem to be circling and even briefly landing on a sycamore. I stand and watch. I cannot see any insects but something is attracting them. Occasionally swifts fly by. In the early morning they arrow straight towards my head before veering off. Later, they can be seen flying higher. The skylarks and meadow pipits are happily plentiful and do not seem too disturbed by the grass being topped. The tractor driver told me he had set the cut high as the main reason for ‘topping’ is to promote fresh growth as well as take down thistles. The cut grass is left, not collected proving rather dramatic pale strips.