Carding Mill Valley with Autumn red heather
Carding Mill Valley is recognisable with its Autumn red heather warming the Shropshire Hills and its meandering stream flowing down the valley. It derives its name from a mill that used to be in the valley and Carding is a term for one of the mill processes. The valley lies near Church Stretton and at the heart of the Shropshire Hills Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB). A beautiful valley to visit any time of year, but the heather colours in Autumn are stunning.
Small watercolour landscape with detail
It doesn’t matter what size painting I do, I always like to paint as much detail as possible. Detail within a painting draws your eye in, it makes you observe more and gives you the feeling of being there. I paint with small brushes to capture the detail. Carding Mill Valley watercolour is roughly A4 in size.
Underlying green transparent watercolour washes
First I applied a light green wash , leaving areas of the paper to represent the underlying white. Then I started painting the red heathers on the hills, the underlying green wash lent a warmth to the red tones. Next working with a smaller brush I started to create shape and definition in the bushes.
The bushes are gorse, bracken and bilberry (known locally as wimberry). The wimberry berries were once used to dye the wools from the mill at Carding Mill Valley. Not only do I paint, I also like to get to know the landscape I paint.
Capturing the curve of the hill and painting the brook
The hill in the background (part of Long Mynd), has an elongated curve shape. It is a very distinctive shape. Therefore all the vegetation and rocks highlighted on the hill have to follow this elongated curved form. It is tempting to make these features more rounded, but it would disrupt the stretched out curve of the hill.
The brook is starting to take form. The brook has rocks and is constantly descending, which causes white frothy water. Therefore most of the brook is white, with more reflective blue in the pooling areas. There is no white paint, so I am painting everything but the white.
Three primary transparent colours to create all mixes
All the colours in Carding Mill Valley watercolour have been mixed from three transparent primary colours.
Watercolour painting of Carding Mill Valley finished
The bubbling brook descending, as the winding path ascends into the red heather Shropshire Hills, Carding Mill Valley.