Plein air demo at Patchings

At the corner of the Barn gallery

Again a great big welcome to all new blog visitors who have found their way here from the Patchings festival!

Amazingly the weather stayed fine for the whole event and really cheered up for Sunday afternoon, the last day. I painted this plein air demo down at the corner of the Barn gallery. Of course I was attracted to the bunting tracing a line across the dark foliage, linking the two red brick buildings. The flowers in the foreground add a second point of interest, and as for the wheelie bin... well, a lot of people thought it was a shame it was there but I disagree! It creates a useful step between the foreground and middle distance, and also is a marker of modern life. I love to include signs of modern life in my paintings, where I can. I also embrace the ordinary!

And here's how I went about it...

Starting quite dark to block in the buildings, more interested in getting tonal values right from the beginning than accurate drawing...

Moving on to block in the medium dark greens all around....

And then going darker into the darks ... oh look, the wheelie bin's gone in!

Starting to place some of the lighter values

The whole painting was finished on the spot in less than three hours, including talking time!