Wrest Park

This is a side view of the Archer Pavilion at Wrest Park (an English Heritage property). Because of its name I wrongly assumed it had something to do with archery, but it is in fact the name of Thomas Archer, the architect that built it.

Out of sight to the right is a long lake that leads up to this pavilion and reflects its image in the water. The whole layout is very reminiscent of Versailles. 

The architecture is quite complex and needed some simplification in order not to get bogged down too much in the detail. The overall effect I wanted to achieve was to show the contrast of the shadowed and light side of the building.

I added some finials on the left roof line that are not actually there in real life, but I thought it improved the design of the building.

Pheasant

 

I was quite surprised to see so many pheasants at Wrest Park and have never had the chance to see them so close before. Their plumage really is astoundingly patterned and colourful, which was a pleasure to paint.

I painted the belly of the bird wet-into-wet (dropping paint into wet paint) and the back wet-against-wet (placing patches of paint next to each other, while still wet).