This is another early effort and was painted during my first stint as artist in residence at Burton Agnes Hall in April 2004. Because I was living in York at the time the Hall provided me with a free flat for a month so Merice and I had a lovely working holiday each spring for several happy years. This was one of our evening strolls looking out towards the rolling expanse of the Yorkshire Wolds. The light reflected in the puddle was brilliant but the sky was the real challenge in this painting. I masked the line of the darker clouds that I needed to preserve. Then a wash in horizontal strips of yellow, red and cerulean blue and when almost dry I added the darker colours for the darkening clouds. I tilted the board upside down so the wet paint ran off the top of the sky leaving very little bleed back onto my horizon. Once I added a bit of detail the painting came to life. Even today, after all these years, when I see this painting I am transported straight back there to that magical evening.
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