Milby Lock

This was painted at Milby, just outside Boroughbridge . I chose this scene after talking to our electrician, who had been fishing there a few days before. He had twice seen otters there whilst fishing, swimming with it's cubs. I was hoping that I might get to see them too if I sat there for a few hours painting, but it wasn't to be. Still, I did get to share the river with a heron a few metres away.
This was painted on primed card, which I really struggled with it. The paint didn't key into the primed card very well, so building up any kind of layers was tricky because the brush kept lifting off the wet paint underneath. I've since taken to lightly sanding the primer to allow the paint to key into the surface, which has helped.
I was going to paint a dredger, and it's workmen, which was moored here when I arrived. Unfortunately they opened the lock, cast off and sailed through the lock as soon as I set up.

Milby Lock