"Radcliffe Camera and St. Mary's, Oxford"

       The Radcliffe Camera in Oxford is an irresistible subject for me. One of the finest buildings in the world, and a challenging perspective to attempt freehand. This angle is from Catte Street, and shows the church of St Mary the Virgin behind. I have tried to leave the painting understated and in doing so have deliberately lost the ground level so that the buildings float upwards like castles in the air. Perhaps that's how I see them, I'm always looking upwards in Oxford, away from the human activities at ground level towards the timeless and abstract.

       As always I did a little 'atmospheric' sketch in my small pocket moleskin, as I wanted to explore the colours I might use, and perhaps as importantly, to fire myself up with a mini-preview of my own work! I still like my little exploratory sketches as much as anything.

House Painting of the Week!

This was a commissioned painting of a nice Cotswold Cottage. It is very pretty but presented a few problems, firstly of the plain gravel frontage which was saved by the little wall and small tree in the foreground which also gave depth to an otherwise flat frontage. The other tricky aspect was the repeating windows across the facade, which were broken up by emphasising the reflections of trees behind the viewer. Showing the sunshine from the left drew shadows across which helped again give depth, and the flowering shrubs and climbers all softened the edges. By request the neighbouring property was faded out which helped remove the harsh roof ridge to the right. The owner was pleased with the result! But it shows that it can demand interpretation to make a photo of a property into a 'painting.'

Below is the 'rough' compositional sketch that I almost always provide before doing the actual painting. This is to try to sort out all the above points and make my mistakes in the thumbnail sketch, not the finished artwork!

To see more house portraits visit my website via the link below:

 http://fothergillsgallery.co.uk/contents/en-us/d41_House_Portraits.html

"After the Rain, St. Mark's Square Venice"

I promised myself this year that I would submit some paintings into public exhibitions, not just my own. This was partly to make myself try to paint to a higher standard, or at least try harder! So I painted this view of St.Mark's Square and entered it for the RBSA (Royal Birmingham Society of Artists) Open Summer Exhibition. To my surprise and delight it was accepted!
But why this view? It is one I have tackled before on several occasions, but this interpretation is to capture a flash of sunlight after rain, hence some reflections and a rather abstract feeling of wetness. The figures are shadowy and vague, all is suggested but I am trying to be less literal than usual and concentrate on atmosphere through half-closed eyes. I was quite pleased with the painting. My test before submitting to open exhibitions is "Does it excite me? Have I succeeded technically? Does it tell a story?" If these answers are positive then I have fulfilled my brief. So even if it is not accepted I have pushed myself forwards which is worthwhile. The RBSA exhibition is now over, but I will try others this year.

Architectural Sketch of the Week

These two ‘cottages’ are not actually within the Cotswolds, so it’s brick and brown tiled roofs, but they’re rather smart, and sit in nice sized plots. The development is still only just past the planning stage, so the building hasn’t yet started, but I’m pretty confident this is what it will look like.