Picture of the Month for February 2023 is Puddle Walk by Paul Whitehouse. It was chosen from the Members Gallery by Jan Bastow.

I am captivated by the patterns in the sand and water in this painting, the reflections of the sky and figure also. The composition leads the eye up to the figure by the ever-decreasing shapes in the puddles and the sand.

The figure walks away from the viewer towards a distant golden sunlit beach. The paler tones of greens and browns of the hills under a light blue sky provide a contrast to the darker palette of browns and blues in the fore and middle grounds. To me, this lends a kind of melancholy to the mood.

The figure is reflective; the stance of hands clasped behind his back suggests to me contemplation, walking to clear the mind, breathing in the ozone, finding solutions to any concerns. A moment of peace and solitude. But it also suggests to me reflecting back to childhood, splashing through puddles for the sheer joy of it, harking back to more innocent times.