After working on last week's image of a solitary building I had a look at a joiner from years ago that I like. It is of Waddesdon House, one of those Rothschild properties built when they were buying in to the Establishment dream. Beautiful house and grounds. I am fond of the yellow gravel and green lips below a blue sky.

It needed some patching in places that I did only to the level of not being immediately obvious. As my intention was to change the mood it didn't matter too much, particularly at this level of resolution that most people don't study. I increased the darkness of sky and grass and yellowed up some of the gravel. I wanted a bit of that evening light effect. As the trees became darker it changed the mood too. I could have made the sky more glowering but I felt I actually had to retain that blue sky out of respect for the fact England doesn't get many of them.

Slouching towards Bethlehem. A Blake line. Who knows what he was on about. I did want the shadows to have a touch of mystery and menace in them so I darkened them up further and wanted it to appear as if they were approaching the house rather than just looking at it.

I'm pleased by the picture. Not De Chiricho standard of course but what is? It came out as something else. I like the definite quality of some of the forms/colours at this point as even if I don't know their purpose they at least do.