Where I live is a typical middle class housing estate in the West Midlands of England. The estate was named Lakeside by the developers, and included as a feature a man-made lake. This painting was done from a reference images took in January of 2012 when the sun was low in the sky, casting interesting shadows and reflections on the waters of the lake. The mud bank upon which the swans, geese and ducks regularly alighted seemed to take on a silvery sheen, almost a glow.