Above Water of Leith. 9′. Oil on 7×5″ wood. Rose Strang, May 2020. Today’s painting from the Water of Leith series, which will be on exhibition at Limetree Gallery, Bristol. If you’re interested in any of this series, please contact the Limetree Gallery on their website – Limetree, Bristol. (As the paintings are in oil they’ll take till mid June to dry).

This is a strange view, odd in real life yet compelling. I haven’t captured it exactly to my liking but it has a bit of the mystery I was trying capture. It’s a view across the river to gardens, the river is just about to tip over into a waterfall on the right and has the glassy smoothness rivers have at that point.

Below I’ve shown a bit of process – the clarity of the first sketch is nice, but the colours were wrong. I’ll most likely have a new attempt at it tomorrow, but I’m happy with this one as a finished painting. There was too much going on in the top half so as you can see I just wiped it out! It’s a bit more restful I think.