Essex Wood in August

Yesterday morning I made my August visit to the wood. As I walked down the track from the old church, the un-cut wheatfields on either side were as level as a table top, and the banks thick with tall thistles – some still showing purple, but many had gone to seed and the air was full of the blowing thistledown. I heard a buzzard and after surveying the clear blue sky for a moment or two, saw it sailing high up over the fields behind me.

It was a hot, breezy day, and for the first time since the Spring, the chief sound inside the wood was the wind in the trees. There was no birdsong at all, and I only saw one woodpigeon, one squirrel, and a few bees. I thought the wood would be swarming with buzzy, bite-y things, so had sprayed myself very thoroughly with ‘jungle strength’ insect repellent – either it was exceptionally effective, or there really were very few insects about: I didn’t get a single bite!

When I first visited the wood in January, I took the wrong track from the church and ended up entering from the ‘back gate’, the southern-most edge of the wood. This time I managed to re-find that little gateway from the inside as it were, and get out into the stubble field beyond – there are several little gaps through the tree line.

There is a little wooden kissing-gate at the southern entrance, and this is going to be the subject of my eighth painting.

Two thirds of the way through this project, now! It  has been so interesting, and I already have quite a few ideas about ways I’m going to use the images when I’ve finished. The paintings of Essex Wood: January, February, March and April are at present on show as part of my solo exhibition at the Naze Tower at Walton, and Essex Wood: May and June are at the Haylett’s Gallery, Maldon, as part of my contribution to Essex Women Artists exhibition. There are just three more weeks to see these two shows, as they both end the first weekend in September.

Hope your weekend is going well 🙂