And finally today, we're back home in Christ's College. This was the first to be…
Looking In From Christ’s Pieces
For reasons (d) other I’m in Cambridge for a couple of days and brought most of my gear with me to do some painting. I forgot the kitchen roll and water bottle but I’m sure can get by. I only had time for one painting today but might manage two tomorrow before heading back to the hotel to enjoy the England match. I was surprised to hear that there were students still sitting exams, which is why I wasn’t allowed inside Christ’s and why I didn’t even bother asking at my sons’ colleges Clare and Tit Hall. After wandering around Cambridge looking for inspiration, I decided to set up shop on Christ’s Pieces with a view of the end of the Fellows’ Building within Christ’s. Cambridge is always pretty busy but Christ’s Pieces, being very slightly off the beaten track, was at just the right level of business for me. The optimal spot for painting was even at a shady dead end clearing surrounded by shrubs, so perfect. Tomorrow, though, I think I’m going to head for the river and watch some bumps races while I paint. It will mean some rough walking conditions, though, I’m to set up on the opposite bank to the busy towpath.
I made the mistake today of not really having a plan. I put down a rough and ready initial drawing, only to find I’d cut of fine top of the building and I didn’t even bother redrawing. And everything was freehand, with no draftsmanship in evidence. I had trouble drawing horizontal and vertical lines and am looking forward to painting a building–free landscape tomorrow. The only compositional thought that did go into to this one was that the two trees made quite a good frame and would allow me to be adventurous with the colours.
I didn’t put much thought into colours today. I just in the key of purple coolish French ultramarine, quinacridone magenta and transparent yellow, my three favourite colours. Later I threw in burnt sienna, mainly to to help with the building colours, and hematite violet genuine, mainly to help add some texture to the wall representing the boundary of the college. Cadmium red and cadmium yellow came in later, with cadmium yellow playing enough of a role for this to no longer be a purple cool painting but a purple warm/cool hybrid.
As you can probably guess, I masked out window frames, spattered on masking fluid and then worked from t back to the front. The sky and trees went brilliantly but I was already disappointed in the painting because of the cropped building and poor draftsmanship, so there were no celebrations.
For the building, the wall, the grass and the paths, I worked in multiple layers, trying to build towards what I wanted. The building, grass and path were built up in fairly sensible layers with localism colours and lots of variegation. The building, to be fair, came out in a very Christ’s looking colour. The rest, less so, spoilt by the shadows. More about them later. The college wall started out pretty good, with a wild, colourful underpainting, some salt and some dabbing with an old–shirt. After this, I put on a couple of glazes, one of which was just hematite violet.
And, after a little intermission where I putting railings with dry raw sienna, French ultramarine and an old credit card, it was time to add the trees. I had so much fun with these, starting with a variegated mix of French ultramarine and burnt sienna, then charging in all three primaries, the burnt sienna and the hematite violet. I got some great effects but couldn’t resist tinkering, trying to improve things. But eventually I stopped in a reasonably sensible place.
I then decided that there were just three things left to do, and in a very specific order: add shadows, remove the masking fluid and add some leaves and greenery. So first I added shadows with a watery purple glaze, hoping it would bring the painting to life and make the sun shine. It didn’t, mainly because I thought about where the sun was and decided that the building wall and boundary wall facing us should both be in shadow, so both glazed. The building survived the glazing but the boundary wall lost all its vibrancy. Then I removed the masking fluid and glazed over the windows with a greyish blue and dabbed them, just because they would have been too bright otherwise.
And then I went for the greenery. I debated whether to go for cadmium yellow or sepia as my main colour, opting for the yellow as I thought the painting needed a bit more oomph. So I used the Merlin brush to stab in loads of cadmium yellow, cadmium red and French ultramarine straight from the tube. This did brighten things up but the painting looked to me as if it had lost some harmony. So I introduced the cadmium yellow to the trees, in the same way that I’ve been using titanium white on rocks. I started with quite a thin layer on the left of the trunks, used a bit of water to spread it over a bit, then dabbed it off. And lo and behold, the trees started to take on some life and to harmonise with the rest of the painting. I then tweaked this by adding cadmium yellow down the left, quinacridone magenta down the middle and French ultramarine down the right and dabbing them dry while trying to sculpt the trunks into cylinders with my dabbing strokes.
And that was me done as it was gone 3pm by now and I was able to head back to the hotel to check in.
And, let’s be honest, this one’s a flop, isn’t it? The trees came out OK and are encouraging but otherwise I think this one suffers from being too rushed. Even the lack of kitchen paper and a water bottle is down to some rushed packing. Let’s move on.
Leave a Reply