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robert
collins
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Snowdrops Most of my landscape paintings were completed over several sessions. After four hours the light will change direction as the sun moves round so that the view is no longer the same. The only thing to do is to return the next day and hope that the light conditions are similar. I always mark the ground in some way so that I can place my easel in exactly the same position when I return. I began a picture of snowdrops growing in a coppice near my home and marked the position of my easel with small sticks pushed into the soft ground. The next day I had to teach and then the weather changed so that when I was able to return the snowdrops were past their best, I did not finish the picture. A year later I was driving past the spot and noticed the snowdrops again and stopped to look at them. The flowers were only just opening but I was astonished to see that the three sticks were still there as I had placed them a year before. I thought this was a good omen and decided to return to the coppice in a few days and finish the painting when the flowers would be at their best. The next day, again on my way to teach a class, I drove past the coppice. There were two men with chain saws thinning out the wood and huge broken trees were lying across the drift of snowdrops. |