Friday 10 April 2015

Bath views from Alexandra Park

I have been living in Bath for almost 10 years, and still, I only discovered a few days ago one of the best view point of the city. This is the view from Alexandra Park which is only 5 minutes drive from my house. The scenery is just breathtaking. I painted this a week ago on a sunny afternoon and found it really inspiring. I surely will be back soon!

Bath views from Alexandra Park - April afternoon  10"x12"  oil on board


My set up before I started painting


Detail

Here are below a few stages of the painting. As you can see, the sky and light is constantly changing which means some buildings are sometimes in the shade, sometimes in the sun. The tricky part is to make a decision about which part you want to keep sunny/in the shadow, and stick to it, otherwise you would spend your time painting over it again and again and end up with a big mess!

Talking about mess, look below at my first stage of the painting...

Stage 1 - blocking in the background



Stage 2 - starting to add the buildings and greens



Stage 3 - posing while someone takes my picture and pretending I'm painting and haven't noticed them



Stage 4 - adding highlights and contrasts



Detail


My next post will be about my forthcoming show in Bradford on Avon (2-4 May) at the West Barn, so watch this space for more info!

7 comments:

  1. Nice painting Valerie. I like the bit where you say I was posing and didn`t know somebody was takling your photo, a nice touch. All the best.
    Vic.

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    1. Thank you Victor! Glad you like the blog post. All the best.

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  2. You've found a great spot there Valerie. It will look good in all sorts of light/weather. Lovely painting...full of light, energy and colour.

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    1. Thanks David, glad you like it! I wanted to keep it loose and abstract and not paint every window so I'm glad you like the result. This is terrific spot indeed and I feel I could come back there every day and never get bored. Lucky me! Hope you're well x

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  3. Replies
    1. I like the painting, light and technique (and I like Bath). "Top"-views are always exciting to paint. I remember plain air painting the city Liege from the Citadel and I lost into details...

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    2. Thank you very much for the comment. I'm from Belgium and shamefully I have never been to Liege! I'd love to go there and paint from the Citadel! Top views are great indeed. I painted from photographs taken from hot air balloon ride and really enjoyed it.

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