"A glimpse of Marbled White" Painting the wild flowers on Malling Down, Lewes

Malling Down nature reserve, Lewes, Sussex

The arrival of July takes me on a walk up Malling Down on the outskirts of Lewes.
 It's quite a steep walk but worth every moment! The views across the Sussex Weald are magnificent

Views from Malling Down overlooking the Sussex Weald

and as you can see I couldn't have wished for better weather.
Malling down is a nature reserve renowned at this time of year for it's wild flowers and butterflies. I wasn't too sure what to expect but as I approached the steep slopes of the coombe the area became increasingly more colourful with the vast array of flowers and grasses. I spent quite a while here just taking it all in and watching hundreds of Marbled White butterflies dance among the flower heads.
Pure heaven!
This is also a great place to get a good view of Lewes town nestled among the South Downs.

The coombe, Malling, Lewes

All in all a perfect day and I really wanted to try and capture some of it's essence in a painting....

                                 "A glimpse of Marbled White"
                               Acrylic on canvas 32"x 18"x 1.5"
 

"A glimpse of Marbled White" 

Close up views of the painting...