Assignment 4

I have spent some time reviewing my work for this part and if I am totally honest, I am not really happy with any of my work done during the exercises. Probably the only exception to this is the quick painting I did for urban landscapes of the London skyline. I think when I embarked on this part I had in my mind that I would produce gritty paintings in the style of George Shaw however I found myself sucked into painting slightly tweet landscapes based on the requirements of the exercise and the resources available to me at the time. Whilst I love a ‘traditional’ landscape I am also intrigued by the more contemporary style of modern landscape artists. As a consequence, I do not feel I have got even close to what I had hoped to achieve for this part and I really want to rectify this for my assignment. I have decided I want to paint a landscape that reflects my locality, my daily life, the town that I live in. Bishops Stortford is a market town but (despite increased building planning) is still in a fairly rural setting with the river Stort running through it.

Mid-January it is still very cold, but on a bright and sunny day I took the opportunity to take a long lunch at work. I work for a local memorial mason and we are situated in the centre of town right next to the river. I decide to take a walk along the towpath to get inspiration for this part. The advantage of using this as my source is that I can fit in repeated visits to this area without impacting the day job if necessary. I love water; drawing, listening and simply being near it. Having the river in my painting appeals. I like the reflections that can be found in the water and think it can add interest to a painting. The advantage of this location is there are office and residential buildings alongside so I will be able to indulge my desire to produce a more urban landscape for this assignment.

I decided to start by seeing how other artists have approached this type of subject. My research can be found here:-

https://jansocapop.home.blog/2020/01/11/assignment-4-research/

Preparatory sketches.

During my walk along the towpath, as well as my camera, I had taken my sketchbook and 3B pencil. I didn’t have a great deal of time, it was bitterly cold and there were no seating areas so the sketches are very rough. I began with a couple of portrait sketches looking both north and south along the river.

I quite like the vertical orientation in landscape, particularly where there is a path leading you through the picture, but I have found large areas of green to be tricky and feel in both these sketches, there would be too much in the foreground.

Further down the river, there is a complex, white pedestrian bridge which crosses the river. I did a couple of sketches from both directions.

The curve of the bridge reminds me a little of the Overpass painting by Brian Alfred which I discuss in my research. There are aspects of these sketches, particularly the view north, which interest me but I am concerned that, as the bridge is not shown in its entirety, it may be a very confusing composition.

On my way back to the office I did a few final sketches of the river incorporating the offices on the right hand side.

The first sketch has more of the residential flats on the left; the second has a glass office block on the far right. I am really torn between these two compositions as I feel the first has more balance to it, but I am intrigued by the reflections in the windows of the glass building in the second.

My final sketch during the walk was done right alongside where I work, under the bridge over the road. Again there are flats on the left, the flour mill on the right hand side and a barge on the water. At this point my pencil had nearly run out of lead and I had made the rookie mistake of not bringing a sharpener.

I reverted to portrait for this sketch mainly because the reflections in the water are really interesting.

Home now and reviewing my sketches alongside the photographs I have taken, I find myself drawn to the last 3 compositions. I am still not sure which direction I will take and now feel like I need to do some smaller colour studies to see if I can narrow the choice down.

Colour studies

Because my final painting will be in oil, I have decided to use this medium for these studies. That way I can ensure I have the right colours on my pallet and the mixes are correct. The final painting will be the largest I have ever done but, the assignment notes ask for it to be around 90cm by 60cm. Unfortunately this is too large for my A1 portfolio. This is a painting that will be submitted to both my tutor and for formal assessment and so I have had to consider the practicalities of postage. The largest canvas I could find that would fit is 76cm x 51cm and this is the size I am going to use. I apologise here for diverting from the instructions and hope it will be OK.

The ratio of the canvas is 3:2 and I have marked out a large piece of oil paper with two proportional boxes so I can get a feel for the overall composition.

In these studies I will focus on the two similar landscape ideas I have got to decide between.

Firstly, I had to consider if I was going to use a grid for this study. I wasn’t the final painting to be fairly organic but, the use of a grid does help with getting items in proportion. I decided to compromise with a very simple grid of 3 boxes across and two down. I feel that this will help me get the positioning and the proportions of the buildings in largely the correct place on the paper without being distracted by the details in the squares.

I have become a bit of a fan of underpainting over the course of the last few exercises. I have found that it helps with thinking about the painting in terms of tone and shapes rather than starting with a stiff drawing. I have decided to use acrylic burnt sienna for the underpainting; acrylic for its fast drying properties and burnt sienna for its warmth.

My final decision is how I am going to approach these studies. As they are a preparation for the final painting I feel it is a good opportunity to experiment with different styles. The first study I have decided to do in the style of John Walsom who uses thick applications of paint in layers, building up the painting in an almost abstract way with beautiful colour that manages to create a realistic painting.

I began by sketching the composition of both paintings with the burnt sienna paint simply to get the proportions and positioning correct. I then went over with some less diluted paint to indicate the darker tones. I will now let this first layer dry then concentrate with the top painting first.

I have chosen the following colours for my pallet:-

Titanium White (Alkyd)

French Ultramarine

Phthalo Blue

Viridian

Alizarin Crimson

Winsor Yellow

Burnt Sienna

Burnt Umber

Raw Umber

I should be able to mix a satisfactory amount of colours and shades of all temperature and value.

Painting 1

I began with the sky using a mix of ultramarine and white, lightening the mix as I came down towards the horizon. I also added a tint of yellow. I next mixed some greens and put in the grass and some of the tree. For the path I made a purple mix of ultramarine, crimson and burnt sienna. I am not sure about this at the moment but it may come together when I add the darker tones as it currently sticks out like a sore thumb! Finally I began to block in some of the colours on the distant buildings. It was at this point that I remembered to stop and take a photograph.

Standing back from it, it looks a bit garish at the moment and I may have to tone some of it down. I will make that decision once the first complete layer of colour is on.

My next task was to mix some greys that would be used for the buildings. Using various combinations of ultramarine burnt sienna and raw umber together with white, I blocked in the general tones for the flats on the left and office on the right finishing with the far bank, trees and reflections in the water, I have decided to stop with this painting to allow this layer to dry a little before I come back to put in some more detail.

Again standing back from this painting, whilst not my usual style, I am not totally unhappy with the way it is developing at the moment. I feel I need to tone down the grass a little and the trees are a little crude but this could be largely down to the large size of the brush I am using. Even as I look at it, I can see many areas where I want to make corrections, but the paint is starting to blend when I paint over so I will leave this to dry for now.

Painting 2

The style that I want to try for the second painting is much more realistic, like the paintings of George Shaw and Reuben Colley.

I started this painting again with the sky, putting in a much smoother graded wash of the blue. I do prefer this approach to the sky in painting one. I added some green to the grass area and then began to put in some of the darker tones for the buildings on the left.

I then began to work on the area on the left hand side using a pallet knife to put in the very fine lines on the fence, windows and buildings.

One of the things about trying to create a much more realistic painting is that my style is much tighter, more precise and I get sucked into the details straight away. This is not necessarily a bad thing but it is a much slower process and it will be interesting to compare the two finished paintings. I have been working on these all day and the light has now faded so I have decided to stop her for the day.

The next day and I have been able to negotiate new working hours which means I gain a few extra hours in the afternoon. Today is the first day of this new arrangement. It is still light outside so I am able to spend a little time on this painting. I spent the next hour and a half concentrating on the bridge and the buildings on the right. I am not sure the buildings, which are in shadow, are dark enough so I may need to adjust this. I used my pallet knife to create the thin lines of the glass window frame and metal fence.

Today I concentrated on getting the rest of the painting covered with the wall, grass, bank and water. I have realised I am spending far too much time on this, particularly as it is just a colour study, time I should be reserving for the actual final piece. I was about to stop when I saw something I wanted to correct. Next thing I know another half an hour has passed and I have started to put in the trees. I am stopping again now for the night.

Continuing on from yesterday, using a fine brush I finished the tree trunks then using a fan brush I stippled in the foliage with varying shades of greens and browns. I could tinker with this painting for hours more but I need to press on so am going to stop here.

Painting 1, cont’d….

Returning to this painting, I toned down the grass adding in the areas of shadows. With contrasting darks and light greys I added more definition to the buildings on the left and added some lighter tones to the central tree. I darkened the far bank and paid attention to the contrasting reflections in the water. My final task was to put in the reeds at the front on the nearside bank.

And once again I am going to stop here.

I am very torn between these two compositions. There is no doubt that I personally prefer the style of the second painting but when I discussed them both with my eldest his thoughts were that the first was better from a distance, the second close up. He thought, and I have to agree, that the colours of the bottom appeared quite flat whereas the top painting seemed more in proportion. Perhaps I should use the top composition but in a more detailed style like the bottom?

I have one more sketch that I quite liked, which I would do in portrait format. It was the least favourite but because of my current confusion, I will do a small colour study of it to firstly distance myself from these two and maybe I even find that I prefer it.

Painting 3

To keep with consistency, I measured up the canvas to match the size of the first two and, using Burnt Sienna acrylic I sketched out the basic composition on the paperwork.

My next task was to cover the paper with colour, getting the basic colours and tones in position. At the moment it looks a bit muddy. I do not want to spend a long time on this so I am trying to keep it very loose, but do feel that it is often the small details that help pull a painting together.

This layer has dried a little and I returned to add in some more details. I added a little change of colour and texture to the path and grass, extending this over to the far bank. I decided to use my pallet knife to add the window frames but the handle promptly broke off (the second time this has happened.) My remaining knives I subsequently found our are too big for this painting so I had to abandon this idea. The paints on my pallet that I have been using for these practices are also now drying out so, after putting in a rough approximation of the trees on the far bank with my fan brush, I have decided to leave this here.

Decision time…

I am still struggling to make a decision. I have asked many people for their opinions and have received a mixed response. There is a very active Facebook group amongst my fellow students and again the response has been mixed. Some prefer the bolder and darker colours of the first but the main comment is the central tree is a distraction. Many like the second painting although I do wonder if that is because it has a more finished feel. Having spent a while considering the options I think I have decided to do the portrait version, although I think I will lose some of the darker nearside bank. The reason for this is that I like the colours and the light; the way the light reflecting off the river draws the eye down toward the bridge in the distance, the reflections of the buildings.

Final Painting

To help with positioning I have drawn a grid of 4×6 squares and then I lightly sketched onto the canvas the basic composition. Bearing in mind the rule of thirds, I have dropped the horizon line so the barge now sits on the bottom third line. The added advantage of this is that I will lose some of the slightly overpowering dark and muddy nearside bank which was taking over much of the bottom right of the practice painting.

For the practice paintings I was using an underpainting of burnt sienna. I considered changing this but have decided that the red tint of this colour helps to bring some life to the greens and blues within the painting. I have however decided to use alkyd oil paint for this rather than rather than acrylic. I want the faster drying properties for this underpainting but I also want the ability to make immediate corrections to the composition if necessary. In the past I have only painted on paper or board. This will be the first canvas painting I have done.

Using a combination of large and medium round brushes together with a rag dipped in white spirit I blocked in the basic composition, concentrating mainly on the shapes of the buildings, rivers, trees and barge together with the general tones. Comparing this underpainting to the one done for the practice picture I note two things. This one is much neater using more solid block of colour. I am pleased with the lowered horizon; the view feels like it is better framed. I am going to leave this here for the day to allow the under coat to dry before starting to add colour tomorrow.

I have decided to keep my pallet of oil paints the same as those used for the practice paintings with the exception of Phthalo Blue and Viridian as I didn’t really use these much and feel that I will be able to achieve all the colours, shades and tones with the remaining pigments.

I started by blocking in the sky a reflections with a large flat brush. The first problem I encountered was how quickly my mixed paint ran out and how little coverage it had made. I need to ensure I mix much more paint than usual for such a large canvas. I wanted to cover the canvas with the basic colours. At the moment it feels very flat. The colour of the left hand buildings needs warming up as I had made a mistake thinking I was mixing yellow with burnt sienna when in fact it was burnt umber. The greens are wrong and everything needs darkening. One thing I have found though is the effect of scraping off paint with a pallet knife.

There are some small details on the barge which I was concerned would be hard to do once the dark paint was put on so, with the point of my new small palette knife I started scraping off the layer and was pleased with the effect. I think I will be using this technique elsewhere in this.

Working on the buildings on the left hand side, I warmed up the brickwork with a little yellow, red, burnt sienna and white and darkened the shadows. I then began to add a few details of the windows and drain pipe. I used the edge of my pallet knife for some of these marks and instantly felt it began to lift the picture. The further building was next. I darkened the shadows and again put in some of the details but, because it is further away, I made the conscious decision to keep them a little more indistinct.

I still felt that the sky was a little too light so I added more ultramarine to the very top to hopefully draw the eye down to the horizon. Finally for today I darkened and adjusted the colour and value of the nearside bank. I am now happy with the darkness but still feel the hue is not quite right so will be adjusting once this layer is dry. I will leave this here for today.

I have had four days away from this painting during the working week and have returned to this with a fresh perspective.

I decided I needed to darken the shadows on the left and bring these down into the water. Using the same grey I softened the shadows on the mill and added a slight lightness to the path. After that, I began to put in the distant foliage. The far trees I kept very faint getting a little more detailed getting nearer. I re-adjusted the green tones on the banks and added a little detail to the path. I wanted the feeling of light in the distance to be emphasised and so I darkened the reflected sky in the foreground and worked in some more of the reflections. Finally for today I worked on the larger two trees beginning with the middle one and then the trunk of the tree on the far left, ensuring that I also brought the colours down into the reflections in the water.

I still feel I have got a lot of work to do on this but now the trees are in and the basic reflections, I feel it is coming together. I just need to make sure that I don’t overwork it.

Today I worked on the autumnal leaves on the trees which I put in with my fan brush. I added some of the reddish tone I was using for the leaves into the path just to have some continuity running throughout the painting. I worked on the reflections, sharpening up some of the edges and tidying up the bank adding in some details. I then put some more texture into the grass using stippling motions to emphasise the tufts. Finally I darkened and added a little more detail to the narrow boat. I think I will stop here for the day and live with it for 24 hours before deciding if I need to do any tweaking.

I have decided to call this painting The River at Work as immediately to the right of this view are our workshops and car park.

Reflection on Assignment

Use of Colour and Medium

As I have for all my Assignment pieces, I chose to do this picture in oils. It is my favourite painting medium, I like its blend-ability, the way it can be applied to the canvas, I even like the smell! The assignment piece needed to be large; indeed the instructions were for it to be around 90cms x 60cms. I was unable to find Oil paper that large and as I haven’t painted on canvas before I chose this support. For practical reasons I chose the largest that would fit in my A1 portfolio case for the purposes of posting to my tutor and later for assessment. This is 51cms x 76cms. As far as colour is concerned, whilst fairly true to the actual view, I did try to keep the pallet fairly limited. Using burnt sienna tones with greys, greens, brown and the blue sky. I tried to use these colours throughout the picture to keep some balance to it.

Composition and Context.

As with all my assignments I have a period of fretting. In this instance, once I started painting I felt it went relatively smoothly. My problems for this assignment were choosing a composition. I had initially had a subject in mind throughout this part, a ford in Clavering, a village about 20 minutes’ drive from me. I had a photograph I had taken a couple of years ago of the ford and a cottage in the background. The problem that I had was that on the few occasions I could get out to the village the weather was atrocious and so I had to change my ideas. The weather was forecast to be beautiful on one of my working days so I decided to take my sketchbook and camera out for a walk along the river Stort which runs alongside the office. I knew I wanted a slightly more urban composition which incorporated buildings, but I also like reflections in water and a little greenery so I felt this walk was perfect.

It was during my practice paintings that I started to struggle. No scene particularly stood out, I do like slightly unusual compositions and none of these really hit the mark. In the end I chose the portrait orientation as I could make more of the river.

I wanted to create a painting that reflects my town. Despite an ever growing population and building work, I can’t really see myself ever moving away, I love Bishops Stortford and wanted to create a painting that shows that.

Mark Making and Contrast of Line and Tone

I used a combination of brushes and tools for this painting and used stippling for the greenery, the edge of my pallet knife for the windows and railings and very fine brushes for some of the small details. One important thing that I wanted to get right was the light. I wanted the eye to travel down the river toward the distance and the light was very important to help establish this. Accordingly I had to make sure I got the darker tones correct and was one of the reasons I did a lot of overpainting of these areas as I went along. I feel that the light is the most successful aspect of this painting.

Form and Experimentation

I feel that I have managed to capture a sense of depth in this painting. There is no doubt it is a representational painting of the river. It was during the practice paintings that I experimented more with my method and are much freer. For my assignment painting I have reverted back to my more realistic style. I have enjoyed working with my pallet knife and whilst I have not used it in any impasto way, close inspection reveals where these marks have been made.

Reflection on my Progress

I have struggled enormously with this part. Way behind schedule, I hadn’t realised how difficult I would find landscape painting during the autumn and winter months with dark, gloomy days and evenings. I am a fair weather person, I hunker down in the winter battening the hatches so, going out in the cold, wet weather holds absolutely no appeal. I draw and paint because I love doing it, but I have to be warm and dry! As a consequence of my procrastination I had a bit of a meltdown which resulted in approaching my boss and renegotiating my hours. This has been operational for the last couple of weeks but already I feel I have gained a little more time in the week which means I can concentrate more on this degree at the weekends. As a result, I am not sure I have made as much progress in this part as I should have.

Demonstration of technical and visual skills

I feel fairly confident with my visual skills; I have always understood the concept of perspective and enjoy playing with tone. Project 2, exercise 1: The Orange Church Wall demonstrated this. The Pink painting of the London skyline was a surprise to me. I was experimenting with my pallet knife and found using the edge created some nice lines which I have used in subsequent paintings and my assignment.

Quality of outcome

Well, this is where I struggle. I haven’t really been happy with any of the exercises with the exception of the London skyline and maybe the soft landscape done for the same exercise. I am happy enough with the assignment painting.

Demonstration of creativity

My favourite exercise of this section was once again borne of a little experimentation which was the London skyline. I played a little more with colour in some of the exercises, but really found I mainly painted in my usual style, erring on representational paintings.

Context reflection

Such an important part of this course and one which I have come to embrace, I enjoy looking at other artists work particularly when I am researching for my own projects. I spent ages, particularly on the ‘Expressive Landscape’ research, but looking through it now it feels a little light. I need to put forward some more in depth analysis into the works that I am looking at and intend to rectify this going forward.

In all this has been a difficult Part which has really surprised me as I was really looking forward to it.