From inside looking out

Exercise:  View from a doorway

After some experimentation and reflection with views from different windows in my home, I settled on looking out from my utility room. I thought this location would be easier to work from in terms of making a mess and it produced some interesting shapes and perspective challenges.



From initial studies in my sketchbook, I discovered that the light changed dramatically as the sun moved into view and surface colour modifications became significant following rain (a common occurrence during this exercise!). Working on acrylic paper support, I sketched out the view in situ then added washes to block out main areas of colour. I found that despite initial assumptions that I could paint directly from the view, I was too cramped so completed the study in my studio. Due to the strong sunlight and reflective effect of wet surfaces following showers, I discovered that I needed to add high percentages of white to the pigments used to illustrate outside surfaces. Similarly the framing created by the back door frame was cast in shadow and needed to be sufficiently dark to create sufficient contrast. I continued this exercise until I felt I had understood the impact of sun and rain on colour representation then stopped before producing a final picture.

Exercise: Hard landscape

A view I have often sketched is from the members room at Tate Modern looking across to St. Paul's Cathedral. This view has many challenges from a partially looking down aspect, to a complex bridge and reflective effects from the Thames.

I prepared some new sketches in situ whilst at Tate Modern for this exercise. Working from these sketches and photographs, I started by using a composition comprising a full view from Tate Modern.

The view was almost an elevational image of the north bank of the Thames with the Millennium Bridge bring the viewer's eye into the picture. This study gave me the opportunity to try out colour mixing using a palette limited to titanium white, ultramarine, yellow ochre, lemon yellow and cadmium red. Brush control to create vertical lines and fussing over small details were my biggest challenges.

Having played with this composition, I decided to experiment with a study of a part of the overall view. Going back to my sketchbook, I tried out a composition that focused in on the drum of St Paul's. I used pages in my sketchbook that already contained colour I had spread from the ends of paint on a previous palette.

I was happier with this composition so enlarged it onto an acrylic paper support. I started by trying to reproduce the effect of randomly spread colour as a base layer. This was not as spontaneous as in my sketchbook and looked a bit manufactured. As I built up my composition over the prepared support, I started to loose the earlier marks due to the application of thicker paint layers than the glazes used in my sketchbook study.

I worked with a limited palette of ultramarine, yellow ochre, cadmium red (dark hue) and titanium white. In order to bring the composition back to my earlier concept, I added yellow ochre and cadmium red to the sky. I found that I needed to add a relatively high percentage of white to the yellow ochre to achieve the whiteness of the stone which was reflecting sunlight. I also had to darken the sky adjacent to the cathedral drum in order to create sufficient contrast and a feeling of depth.

I am happier with both the composition and colour choices in this painting than in the two earlier examples. Despite being almost elevational in view and simplified in detail, I feel I have captured the atmoshere and scale of St. Paul's Cathedral compared to the buildings in the foreground whist expressing the feeling of warmth and depth I observed in the prevailing sunlight.