In his article, how to overcome the dreaded block, in the January issue of The Artist, Paul Talbot-Greaves set readers a challenge to paint from a photograph of sunshine and snow.

Of the reader versions sent in to the gallery, Paul selected the painting below by Christine Kyles for critique saying, 'A big thank you to everyone who has taken part in the challenge. It’s really great to see such a diversity of approaches to the subject'.

Christine created her painting by washing over mount board with viridian blue mixed with white and then a second wash using ultramarine and white.

Paul's Critique

This month’s choice is Christine Kyle’s painting. Thank you for submitting your work Christine. You have achieved some great contrasting values here, which is what the painting needs. I particularly like the brush marks in the sky with the slightly darker background just showing through. I would suggest you refrain from using too much black in your paintings though, perhaps instead mixing a brown and a blue such as burnt umber and ultramarine. This will give you opportunity to split the colour and make the result more varied and colourful. The tree is great but I feel a little overworked with lots of small brush marks. Use a bigger brush and be positive and bold with the shape, altering the values wet into wet within it. This will simplify the look and lend a greater sense of realism to your work.

Happy painting!

Paul

You can see all reader paintings in the gallery by clicking here.

Paul's second challenge in the February issue is to use his landscape photograph, moored up (see below), and crop it to a portrait format and adjust the contrast and saturation before painting from the modfied image. A high resolution version of this photograph can be obtained by emailing [email protected].

Send in your version by 10th February for possible critique by Paul.