This painting proved to be an even greater challenge because I was reluctant to deviate from abstraction and definitely did now want to default to realism, which would have been an easy option for me. So, I decided to use the splatter effect that I applied in the Oyster Catchers painting. The iPad is great for doing this type of work. Virtually, every shape element is painted on a separate layer, one in front of the other, starting from the foreground. The composition was predominantly green in colour with some splashes of magenta. To provide balance and vibrancy I made the clouds magenta as well. The painting “works” visually but to achieve this result I had to use a completely different style and effects.

Water Crowfoot – background information from Herefordshire Wildlife Trust

This painting captures the River as it should be, full of life!  The iconic white flowers of water-crowfoot with their buttercup like yellow centre are illustrated growing in the River and the River bank is teaming with wild flowers.

Sadly, wildlife in the River Lugg is suffering as the River currently has fragmented habitats and unfavourable pollution levels. Sedimentation, caused by the erosion of the river banks, and sediment carried in water flowing across farmland land smothers aquatic vegetation like water crowfoot. The sediment also prevents lamprey, bullhead and salmonids spawning and smothers their eggs, reducing their survival, by preventing nutrient exchange. High phosphate levels are also causing eutrophication, a peak in algal blooms, which reduces water oxygen content and further impacts aquatic wildlife such as water crowfoot.

Reducing pollutants in the catchment is going to require a significant change in land use practice over decades. In the past seven years we have worked with over 35 farms to conduct a range of works that benefit both farm productivity and wildlife. With the help of grants administered by the Trust farms have installed over 19km of fencing waterside fencing. The fencing excludes livestock and allows bankside vegetation to re-establish, capturing soil in water flowing overland, before it enters the River, this is beneficial to the farmer, as they are losing less soil, an incredibly valuable resource.

As the climate changes and rainfall increases, the floodplain of the river is facing more frequent flooding, which is lasting for longer. Farmers have worked in partnership with the Wildlife Trust to plant cover crops so that soil isn’t left bare over winter, worked to increase soil’s structure and organic matter levels and so that it is more absorbent, planted hedgerows and trees in areas where water flows across the land, and slowed the flow of water in key areas through the installation of leaky dams. If these collaborative actions continue to be adopted across the catchment, we can reduce the impact of flooding.