This acrylic painting of wildlife on the muddy banks of the man made lake that is at the centre of the housing estate where I live in the West Midlands is full of colourful detail. The inspiration for the work was a reference photograph that I had taken back in January 2012 when the sun was low in the sky, casting interesting shadows and reflections on the waters of the lake. The mud bank upon which the swans, geese and ducks regularly alighted seemed to take on a silvery sheen, almost a glow. I named this work “Lakeside Days“, I really should have named it Lakeside Reflections. The reason I chose this particular reference image was the twofold; I liked the arrow shaped distribution of the wildlife which created a flow through the composition and the low reflected light on the mud bank and the lake itself. The amount of detail was also something that I wanted to get into the work. The most challenging aspect is the reflected light on the surface of the mud, which was at the time really sticky. If I remember correctly it was a low autumn sun. As with a lot of my work at this time I consciously emphasised the colour, using in this instance no grey and black only sparingly.