This Way To The Village Hall

I’m keeping going with the soft pastel landscapes and thought I’d have a go at another local one, building up the reserve list ready to display at the Rose & Crown should any that are already there find new homes. I wasn’t in the mood for loads of detail, so picked this view of the driveway to the village hall, a one point perspective composition that’s not much more than four big shapes.

I worked on the four shoes one at a time. The sky, the hedge in the left, the hedge on the right and finally the driveway. And in all four cases it was all about adding whatever colours felt right at the time, smoothing them down with fingers or colour shapers, the. Going back and adding more colours. I kept going until I was happy with the result, except for the case of the driveway where I was forced to stop because the tooth of the paper was full. I’m reasonably happy with where I ended up stopping though.

I added the telegraph pole and wires at the end but made the same mistake as before, adding them with a dark pastel. The problem wasn’t that the lines were too thick, just that they were too sharp and vivid, commanding too much of the viewer’s attention. I tried to make them disappear and resolved them with charcoal pencil lines but the sky suffered a little as a result of this. Next time I’ll go straight for the charcoal pencils. Or maybe even a graphite pencil?

This one is a reasonable effort. The sky, at least before the tinkering, was excellent and highly encouraging. The left and right shapes are also pretty interesting. But the driveway feels a bit monotone and boring in comparison to the other three shapes and my attempt to put it in shadow brings a gloomier mood to the painting than I was wanting to evoke. Worth putting up for sale, though. The price can be found here.