Brickcroft Nature Reserve

I went to Brickcroft Nature Reserve in Longton tonight. It was very dull and grey and I couldn’t find a view I was happy with, despite doing two laps of the place. There was about 2 hours max of light left so I was in a rush. My attention turned to some cows in a nearby field. I like paintings of cows but I’ve never done one myself. There’s something quite meditative and therapeutic about the way they slowly chew the grass and they stay fairly still so I would imagine they’d be quite easy to paint. There was also a barn that would make quite an interesting background and there was just a hint of a warm setting sun poking through the thick grey clouds. I whipped out my tripod (wey hey!) and hastily prepared to start the painting, with the cows as the focal point. It turns out cows have an almost comedic sense of timing though, because as I literally went to put brush to canvas, they began to walk back into the barn en masse. Within a minute the field was empty. I snatched at my equipment and walked down back towards some lily pads I had seen on my first lap of the pond and decided they’d have to do.