22nd November. Taken a few days ago and since it’s attracted a certain amount of attention on social media, I’m posting it here for the sake of provenance.

This is a footpath locally running alongside a bypass but you’d never know it from this view. There is deeply mulched ground on either side that fills up and overflows onto the path in heavy rain. The trees are coppiced from time to time, but otherwise left to be themselves. That day, I was stymied by the flood, not having the right footwear to get through it and stay dry; the photo was barely thought through and certainly not composed because I was focused on the extent of the flood and not the surroundings. When I got home though, I couldn’t believe the colours, the shapes, and the sky being in two places at once. It’s probably the best photo I’ve ever taken, and I can claim almost no relevant input to the outcome!

As an aside, I’d say it’s also an illustration of why a good photo doesn’t always make a good painting unless you do something else with it, and it made me realise that the articulation of this that I’d been looking for was that I don’t paint the thing, I paint the meaning of the thing.