Loose in the Cotswolds by Steve Hall

This article was originally published in the January 2011 issue of The Artist

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Steve Hall paints the The Eye Stream at Lower Slaughter

Inspiration can be found everywhere in these islands. Recently I had the opportunity to paint in some stunning villages along the banks of the River Windrush in Oxfordshire.

Compromise

Lower Slaughter is a renowned beauty spot, teeming with tourists of all nationalities. I enjoyed the busy atmosphere and spoke to a number of visitors who had also painted at this location. My first subject was the old mill (below) with its associated waterwheel and more recent chimney. Sometimes, when painting outdoors, your viewpoint has to be a compromise, as was the case here. The better view to the left was too close to a busy road. Because of this my view of the waterwheel, which was immediately to the left of the building behind the road sign, was restricted.

Reference photograph

Preliminary sketch

Changing light

The production of most paintings usually consists of solving a series of problems – the better paintings having fewer mistakes than those with which we are not so pleased. The principal problem on this particular day was the variable cloud during the morning, which constantly changed the lighting conditions and therefore the tonal values and shadows. When this occurs you just have to make a decision regarding which lighting effect to accept and stick with it throughout the painting.

I made sure that I left sufficient white paper so that I could, towards the end of the work, paint the figures. Notice how the man’s shirt and the woman’s skirt are the plain white of the paper – their shape being described by the surrounding darker tones of the background and the man’s dark trousers.

In order to allow the scene to fit the paper format I let the chimney run out of the top of the picture. I think that it is quite acceptable to do this with vertical objects, provided that their shape does not terminate at the edge of the picture.

Daunting

Scenes such as that in The Eye Stream at Lower Slaughter (below) can be very daunting, as we are presented with a myriad of greens that range from just staining the paper to the darkest tones in the picture. It is very easy to end up with a painting that is very disjointed, particularly if we try to apply the light tones, wait for them to dry, and then add the darker accents. The secret lies in applying the various shapes and tones wet-in-wet so that the forms merge and we get a variety of lost-and-found edges in the foliage.

DEMONSTRATION - The Eye Stream at Lower Slaughter

I began by lightly indicating the basic shapes with a soft pencil and then working up the distant forms. Note that these are generally cooler and paler than the nearer forms – this is aerial perspective. The various shapes and tones were applied wet-in-wet so the forms merged and created a variety of lost-and-found edges in the foliage.

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I then added the nearer trees, allowing some forms to merge and some to remain hard-edged, so creating a sense of depth but without that cardboard cut-out effect, which would have occurred if I had used all hard-edged shapes. Unfortunately, there is no shortcut to learning wet-in-wet techniques; it is very much a case of practice, practice and more practice. You go through the failure barrier countless times and then still get it wrong on the odd occasion. Rather like cooking an omelette, it is all about timing.

FINISHED PAINTING

The Eye Stream at Lower Slaughter, watercolour, 15 x 22in (38 x 56cm)

Finally, I added the bridge, a couple of figures and some branches in the trees. Some of the branches were painted in a dark tone with a rigger; others were scraped out of the drying washes with an old palette knife.