Cornish Oak.

 Watercolour with scratching out over pencil
40 cm x 18cm or 16 inches x 7 inches

There is a line of Cornish Oaks, (also known as sessile oak) very near my house.  Their wind pruned shapes, gnarled and twisted against the sky are beautiful in any light but in the evening they excel.  As the sun dips lower in the sky and frost kisses the tips of the grass they stand out, almost in silhouette, like dancing sisters, lacy tracery of tiny branches against a cold cold sky.
I was checking out the new Google Books feature the other day and put in my name and it came up with lots of stuff, one of which was a painting by my great great grandfather with this description, Watercolor with scratching out over pencil, that sounds good I thought, so I did this painting as a bit of a homage to my old ancestor.  It was his influence, from way beyond the grave, via his ancient painting kit that languished in my Grandmothers attic, that made me think, at a very tender age, that being an artist was a good plan.

 So here you can see, in this detail, the scratching out as well as the pencil.  It is a nice technique, pencil work gives you confidence in that you know where everything is going before slapping on the colour and the scratching out provides that little frisson of excitement, will it wreck everything!

I don't think it did wreck it, just gave the frosty grass a little sparkle as it caught the last light of the day.