There is a contrast in this painting between the horizontal brushstrokes of the foreground, indeed the whole of the lower half of the picture, and the vertical strokes which dominate the rather expansive and dramatic sky. These suggest the light raining down on the landscape beneath, and call attention to the focal point, the church tower, which is silhouetted against the pale blue and breaks the line of the horizon. The colouring is rich, suggesting high summer, and the artist has achieved a unified effect by echoing the blue of the sky in the foreground reflections on the water. The eye moves over this level foreground, over the dark line of buildings at the water’s edge to the two brightly-lit fields beyond and then to the church. This journey of the eye to the church is helped by the long, dark curving brushstrokes, hedgerows perhaps, that lead directly to it.