Temple of Saturn, Rome

Number two son just announced he’s off with some mates to Bremen, Split and Rome so I’m using this as an excuse to get in some much needed landscape painting practice. This is the Temple Of Saturn in Rome. I picked this view because of the interesting shadow shapes along the top and the light patterns on the cylindrical columns. This was painted using the MGraham honey based watercolours. I used all six of my colours along with some cadmium yellow at the end.

I started by putting down a pencil outline. I used a grid and a ruler for working out where all the lines intercepted the edges of the squares. This one felt like it needed some especially accurate draftmanship. Then I masked out all the architecture and some random scratchy marks on the hillside and was ready to go.

My first wash covered the sky and acted as an underwash for the hill. The sky is mainly cerulean blue, with the violet in places (mainly at the top) and the brown in some places. I’ve not left as much white cloud as I wanted to. What cloud there is is behind the top lintel. I think I was trying too hard to have the darkest bits of the building contrasted against the lightest bits of the sky. While the sky was drying, I added more layers to the hill, using all six colours and looking for some variety.

When the sky was dry (and the hill still drying) I removed all the masking fluid from the temple and put down an underpainting on it. This was a very watery wash, a variety of different warm and cool greys all over the place and a more browny neutral colour along the top of the top lintel. When that was was dry, I started on the columns. I mixed up a different grey dark for each column, depending on the colours I could see in the source photo. I then painted these down the right of columns, encouraged them to run to the left by wetting them down their left edges and then dabbed them dry to prevent the paint from diffusing too far. I did this four times, using a different neutral colour each time and ended up with some pretty rich colours.

While the first layer on the columns was drying, I started on the lintel, then ended up switching backwards and forwards between the two. I started with quite a light wash over all the shadows to give me something to hang everything else off. After that, the lintel was like a colouring book and, once it was all coloured in, I added extra notes and went over shadows with a darker wash. I also added some watery stains over some of the light bits of stonework

Then I rubbed off all the masking fluid from the hill and took a step back. The whites in the hill were too white, so I added another layer to the hill, varying the colours everywhere. I introduced cadmium yellow to the painting at this point and deliberately included some unexplained yellow, orange and blue passages on the hillside. I stabbed on some grasses around the column with the Merlin brush and added some birds. And that was me done.

There’s lots to like about this one. The columns are great, the shadows in the lintel give a sunny atmosphere and there are some great textures in the hillside. If I wanted to be picky, I’d be wondering whether the hill should be hiding a bit more of the fourth of the seven columns and whether the rectangle of shadow on the underside of the lintel between the third and fourth columns is too tapered on the left. But that’s just me and this one’s still good enough to go up for sale, with the price to be found here.