Painting it has raised a few challenges for me and taken quite some time to complete. The size of the painting (40x30cm) is a fair bit larger than my source photo and has been painted with acrylics. It remains true to detail other than a tree in the foreground which spoilt the composition so I left it out! Also, the sky in my photograph was very grey after the rain shower that got me wet before I took it. This I changed using an earlier photo of a more blusterous sky taken at another location last year. I find it helps to take photographs wherever I go, whenever I can, as this gives me a constant supply of things I can use in subsequent paintings even though I may only use small parts of the image. The picture below shows the work at it's varying stages.
Last Autumn I joined the South Leicestershire Art Group (SLAGs), which is a small, informal group that meets every Tuesday morning to have a chat and paint together for a couple of hours in a church centre. Having this small point in time each week set aside for painting has been a fantastic boost to my work, both in terms of quantity and quality, and is something I constantly look forward to. Long live SLAGs!
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| This shows the work at various stages. |
Nice work Frank. There is some tricky perspective there but it all looks right to me. The "improved" sky gives some colour to the top of the painting as well.
ReplyDeletewhat a marvellous painting! I admire your tenacity and talent
ReplyDeleteThank you Keith and Maureen - your comments are very much appreciated.
ReplyDeleteAn outstanding painting Frank, I can see why it would take a while to complete. It always amazes me to hear the dates of places and things that are so old. I suppose that comes from living in a country that is fairly new by Englands time clock.
ReplyDeleteSo very interesting ..
I'm useless with acrylics, and don't know how you do such a wonderful piece of art with that medium..
BJ
I must admit Barbra that the first time I used acrylics a couple of years back, that I got into an awful mess and didn't think much of the medium. Having persevered, I got to know how better to use this paint and very rarely do watercolours these days. Thanks commenting.
DeleteSorry it's taken so long to get here Frank. This is a fabulous painting. Whenever I've passed through Market Harborough I've taken note of 'the building on stilts' thinking what a brilliant subject it would make. Although I have a photo or two somewhere, I've never gotten round to tackling it. You've done a fabulous job of capturing the splendid character of the building and I like that you've painted it on a rainy day. which adds even more interest to the scene. Great work!!!
ReplyDeleteNice to hear from you again John. I've never painted a wet scene before and it didn't seem so hard to do the paving - much quicker than most of the rest of the painting. The only thing I wish I had done was to give the work a a wash of burnt sienna. This is because tiny white pieces of canvas show through in places, which although works well for watercolour, doesn't really work well with acrylic. Like all of us, I am learning all the time!
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