Painting in Widcombe by the river Avon

Here is a plein air painting I did a couple of weeks ago in Widcombe alongside the river Avon. My discerning blog followers might notice I did a painting almost at the same spot last year, depicting the footbridge (you can see a small section of it on the right). Click here to see which painting I'm talking about.

Sunny day, near Widcombe footbridge   14"x10"   oil on board

It was a beautiful sunny morning and what caught my eye was the variety of greens, the sun hitting the facades of the houses, and the green footbridge/roadworks fences caught in the sun. Below is the picture of the view I painted. I set up alongside the river handrail and tried not to drop my brushes in the water (almost did!).

My faithful and patient bike waiting for me to finish my painting

The painting half way through

That's me in action

I didn't need to look at my watch to keep track of time because I could hear every 45 minutes the guide on the microphone in the tourist boat passing just below me, saying each time exactly the same sentence at the same spot. I got a few waves from the tourists too so that kept me company. 

Detail of the finished painting

Detail of the finished painting

This painting, alongside many others, will be for sale at our forthcoming show in Bradford on Avon on 2-4 May. If you haven't heard about it and want more info, check out my last blog post here. I hope to see you there!

Widcombe Footbridge - Plein air & studio versions

A few weeks ago I went on my bike in Bath looking for a spot to paint when this footbridge caught my eye. It links the Widcombe bank (left) to the train station (on the right). I loved the variety of greens and the reflections on the water. I set up in the glorious morning sunshine and gave it a go. Here is the result:

Widcombe Footbridge in the morning  12"x10" oil on board

Detail

Below is a glimpse of my painting 3/4 way through. You can see I decided not to paint yellow barriers... 

At this stage a woman came to me and asked if she could have a look. When she saw the painting she said "Oh dear, you still have a long way to go haven't you?" I thought of explaining that actually my style is rather loose and impressionistic and it is meant to look like this, but she was gone already!

Back at home I was actually quite pleased with the result. And since I have the opportunity to paint in the studio during my daughter's naps - and not so much opportunity to paint outside - I decided to try a large studio version of the painting. See below the process:

My original plein air painting is on the table on the right, which I used as reference. After applying a neutral wash on a large canvas, I reproduced the main lines of the drawing:

I then started blocking out the colours with large brushes:

I then added more details and richness to the greens:

Here is the final result:

Widcombe Footbridge in the morning (studio version)  50cmx60cm  oil on linen canvas

Since the main reference for me was the original painting (I didn't take decent photographs or done proper sketching on the spot), the painting ended up being a scaled up version of the small one, with no more details. I must admit that I do like that idea because I wanted to keep the same freshness and bold brushstrokes, as if the large painting had been painted in plein air.

Detail

Widcombe before the rain, January

Here is a small one I painted in January. In fact it was actually my first painting of the year. I was a bit worried I forgot how to paint as I hadn't done any painting during the Xmas break (eating chocolate and watching TV somehow got in the way) so I decided to take it easy and cowardly went for the smallest canvas size I could find - 5"x7" (any smaller and I would qualify for a postage stamp design competition). Here is the result:

Widcombe before the rain, January    5'x7"   oil on board 

It was a grey cold and wet day in January and I went painting with fellow painter Bo Hilton but naturally I arrived late - he was already at an advanced stage in his painting so I made my mission to get up to speed and finish mine before him :-)

Bo painting dangerously close to the water...

Here is the painting half way though. The board was actually too small to stand on the hook so I had to put some brushes at the back to make it more stable:

My painting towards the end:

You're probably thinking you've seen this painting before. Well, I have done the exact same view in similar weather a few months ago. Click here to see my previous post.