Grey days and moorland farms

Doesn't sound like a promising combination for painting, but after a long spell not getting out a tiny promise of sun was all that it needed.  Sadly it waas no more than a promise.
I headed up a road I hadn't travelled before, albeit only a couple of miles from where we live.  10 miles further up the road, past villages full of weekend homes and idyllic pubs I came out onto the North Yorkshire Moors proper at Bransdale.

This old farmstead had a SOLD sign on the ground so perhaps it will suffer the fate of many others and undergo a makeover only to be lived in  occasionally, or maybe some hardy souls will gird their loins to live at the mercy of the unfettered winds and rain, and the slim pickings of the moorland farmer.

My set up on location

The promise of sunshine did not materialise.  The light was very flat but in the far distance appeared a sliver of golden light just above the horizon.  Perhaps the sun was shining in Manchester (or Middlesborough - I am not sure which direction I was facing, but as it was afternoon I assume it would be westish)

To make the painting a little more interesting I enhanced the light and shade on the buildings.
Winter trees are my current bete noir.  How to best portray the massed bare branches is a constant mystery.  Looking at the work of many painters I admire it seems the consensus is an area of lighter tone than the main trunks, similar to the watercolour method, rather than trying to paint every twig.  I definitely need more practice.  I figure as it is still February I have another 3 months before the buds burst in May.  Much more drawings of trees and tree studies coming my way.

Here is the finished painting (there is some glare from the surface of the oil paint.  I am still juggling with light to get good colour representation on my photographs.)  I have gone back to using my DSLR camera as the colours are truer than on my compact.

Grey Day Bransdale Moor
Oils on board
12x10"