I must admit to being a little intimidated by the challenges of mixed media and got into a bit of “painters block” blaming the weather and finding all sorts of displacement activities. Nevertheless the light has been bad more often that it has been good – even with my large north facing skylight. My monthly trip to the Chevin raised the spirits and I decided to conduct an experiment. Using a loose style I’d lead with 2 different mediums. Both these pictures are mixed media in the sense that they contain inks. They are both the same view of the Chevin as it was in November from the sketches and photos I took then. In this view we are looking northeast from just below the rock outcrops near the Royalty car park, the hill on the horizon is Almscliffe Crag. Both are attempt to become less literal and convey emotion, the difference could be explained by the fact that one represents the start of a sunny spell and the other the end of it. It is also down to the differences between the mediums and choice of colour. The first is predominantly watercolour but has ink and acrylic in the mix. has the lighter in feel. There are some faint memories of autumn warms as the season closed down coming from the alizarin/purple lake in the shadows. The second is predominantly acrylic, it has a more lowering even foreboding feel and is cold, I used ultramarine and umber with lemon yellow to keep the sunlight cold. I appreciate feedback.