Cotswold tree line

This is a superbly lovely line of trees I see on my daily walk around the fields, mostly horse chestnuts, marred only by the ugly electric fence in the foreground.

Today I started preliminary pastel sketches for a painting which is going to be based on this photograph; technically speaking, painting from a photograph is a big no-no, but I believe in using technology where it exists, and besides, the weather is changing so rapidly that I will need the reference materials. (I feel I might be being a bit defensive about this, but I am going against all I was taught at college).