In the shade of the chestnut tree

Whenever I have walked past this chestnut tree, I have been impressed by its size and thought it would make a good subject. I photographed it on a particularly sunny day for reference and painted it this strong yellow to convey a sense of light and warmth.

After turning the painting upside down for assessment, I felt the yellow was too isolated and introduced the same colour into the shadow underneath it to help with unity.

Ich bin oft an diesem Baum in der Zofinger Altstadt vorbeigegangen und habe schon lange vorgehabt, ihn einmal zu malen.  Mir gefällt seine Grösse und ich stelle mir vor, dass er schon sehr alt ist. Wieviele Generation haben sich wohl in seinem Schatten unterhalten und ausgeruht?

Ich möchte mit meinem Bild eine lebhafte und lichtvolle Atmosphäre wiedergeben und habe deshalb für den Baum ein kräftiges Gelb gewählt.

Vintage steam engine

Nene Valley Railways, steam engine

This is outside the engine sheds of  Nene Valley Railways. Engines are quite complicated to draw, which I solve by simplifying the shapes, as I am not interested in technical detail. 

Looking at the subject through half closed eyes is a good way to cut out detail when judging overall shapes and tone. 

I suppose this painting is about shadow and light and how to make greys colourful. Most of them I mixed from varying proportions of alizarin crimson (Winsor & Newton), raw sienna (Jacksons) and turquoise blue (Turner).

Still life with fan

watercolour 30cm x 40cm

when it's getting too hot to paint outside, then a still life set up indoors is just ideal. One doesn't have to spend long on choosing the items for it, whatever appeals should make a pleasing arrangement.

I chose the tea towel to complement the jug and used a limited palette to make sure the colours work together.

Some of the items you choose may have a personal significance. In my case, the jug on the left used to belong to my husband's grandmother and it's nice to record heirlooms in this way.