Ooijpolder, December, Half Three

Painted outdoors over four consecutive afternoons in December 2025, on the same eleven kilometre stretch of the Ooijpolder Achterberg has been working since 2015.

The linen is unprimed, so the thinned oil sinks in and stains rather than sitting on the surface. There is no ground and there is no correcting. Where the oil spread further than he wanted it has left a pale halo, and there are five of them in this painting, all visible, all permanent.

Half three is when the light goes in December. He stops when he can no longer read colour, which means the upper third of the canvas was painted about forty minutes later in the day than the lower third and is correspondingly greyer.

Stretched on a poplar strainer. Unvarnished, as the artist requires.