Oaks Park walk

Unusually for me I was out of the house before 9 this morning – I’m a shockingly slow riser, normally. I’ve done this 7 mile walk many times but it was good to be walking again after an absence of a couple of weeks. Through the woods then past the back of the prison and onto Oaks Park. Everywhere the grass was very long but fortunately I don’t suffer from hay fever. As usual I do some reading in the shade, with my usual coffee and a Kit-Kat from the excellent café.

A sign on the path invited me to find the open art studios and I came across just one with an open door. Looking inside there was no sign of the artist so I was reluctant to enter their private space which was a typical working studio with the paints and equipment as well as walls covered in paintings. I can’t believe I didn’t take a quick photo – my artist daughter would have appreciated and envied a fellow artist’s workspace. I turned around, walked in a circle and decided to go back to take that picture, but the door to the studio was now firmly closed. I should have grabbed the opportunity when I had it!

Painshill Park, Cobham

Painshill Park, near Cobham in Surrey, is a delightful park. On a lovely, sunny day the beautiful grounds, lake, waterwheel and crystal grotto meant there was much to photograph!

Morden Hall Park

Morden Hall Park, owned by the National Trust, offers a pleasant, park walk, and on a sunny morning I managed to take a few decent photos. The second-hand bookshop is large, though I couldn’t find much of interest other than a single science paperback.

Art in the park

The entrance to Studio 9 of the Oaks Park Studios is not very inviting.
It looks like something one might have found in Eastern Europe circa 1950.

Stacked branches reminded me of………

……. an early artwork by my daughter

Beddington Park

I took these pictures in Beddington Park on a cold, miserable and grey morning. It used to be a rather scruffy park but now it’s really quite pretty.

I accidentally took the pictures with a filter on the iPhone camera app and they came out horrible, so I deleted them. I then discovered that the iPhone allows you to undo changes and so the damage done by the filter could be reversed after un-deleting. There was still a lot of work necessary in Photoshop to enhance the colours on such a sunless day. I may have gone a bit to far with the colour enhancements – artist’s prerogative!

Out for a stroll

Until the ‘social distancing’ becomes a ‘curfew’ it’s still possible to enjoy the parks and countryside. This morning, a walk in the park and a browse past the art gallery turned up a couple of nice images.