Demonstration

Rapeseed Fields, near Stourbridge

Step 1

1 Prime the canvas with a thin coat of burnt sienna, yellow ochre and titanium white. This background colour will help to enhance the colours in the painting and give you a colour to paint on, rather than stark white.

2 Mix white, a touch of yellow ochre and a little cerulean blue and, using an Ivory filbert No. 6, paint a 2in. band horizontally across the centre of the canvas. Now add a little ultramarine blue to the mix and paint another band across the top of the previous colour while blending it. Repeat the process to the top of the canvas, continually adding a little more ultramarine blue each time.

3 For the rapeseed field base coat, blend yellow lake, ultramarine blue, white and a touch of burnt sienna. The yellow and blue will make green, the white will lighten it and the burnt sienna will add an earthy quality to the hue. Paint this base coat in a similar fashion to the photo.

Step 2

For the base cloud grey, mix small amounts of ultramarine blue and raw umber with a large amount of titanium white to make an excellent grey with which you can take in any direction simply by adding another colour. Here we add touches of yellow ochre and purple for the lighter and darker shades. Take a hog hair brush and scrub the colour onto the sky horizontally to reproduce the shapes of the cloud bases. If this proves difficult, turn the canvas and photo you are copying upside down and paint it like that.

Step 3

Cloud highlights are laid on top using a mix of titanium white with small amounts of yellow ochre and burnt sienna to tint the white to a pale cream. It’s important that the highlight paint is applied thickly for the best effect. Fingers are excellent painting tools for painting in and blending clouds highlights, and gloves can be worn, if preferred.

Step 4

1 Now we can paint the distant trees and hedgerows on the horizon. Begin by mixing a dark green using ultramarine blue, yellow lake and a touch of burnt sienna. Shape the trees by squashing the paint onto the canvas using a No. 4 hog hair filbert. Repeat the process using a lighter mix with more yellow lake and white added.

2 Take a hog hair flat brush and apply the same mixture to the flat sides of the brush bristles and rub this gently across the canvas to form the shape of the larger tree. You can use the tip of a Rigger brush to paint the trunks of the tree.

Step 5

1 Create a dark green by first blending yellow and ultramarine, as before, then introduce crimson and purple to the mix. Press the blade of a palette knife into a pool of dark green and lift to reveal a delicate network of thin lines of paint. Now gently press this stipple pattern repeatedly onto the bottom of the field to produce interesting and delicate textures. You can also scrape small amounts across the canvas, taking advantage of the canvas weave to give you another texture.

2 Add yellow ochre and cerulean blue to the mix and repeat the techniques to approximately halfway up the field.

3 Rub a thin layer of this green onto the base or the palette knife and rub this flat across the canvas from halfway upwards, increasing pressure as you go. This will give you a very light broken speckled effect on the canvas.

Step 6

To the same mix add yellow lake, burnt sienna and white to achieve a light yellow-green. Continually mixing into the same pool of paint will help your greens to sit together nicely on the canvas. Apply a thin layer onto the base or your palette knife and rub this flat across the field horizontally, being more generous with your paint than the previous step. You can also employ the stipple technique described above to give you another layer of patterns and textures with this colour. Try lightly bouncing the stipple instead of pressing delicately. If you feel you have gone too far with this colour and painted over too much of the previous layers of texture, simply work over the top with the darker colours again until you are happy.

Step 7

Apply paint to the edge of the tear-drop shaped knife blade and draw broken lines of colour near the base of the canvas. Having a variety of colours, marks, tones and textures will help to give your painting a more convincing, realistic and natural feel.

Step 8

Mix together white, yellow lake hand yellow ochre to achieve a bright warm yellow. Apply a generous amount to the base of your palette knife and scrape it across the horizon line of your field, keeping the paint nice and thick at the top.

Step 9

Apply a generous stipple pattern of the bright warm yellow paint to the base of your knife and bounce it around on the field, changing the angle in which you apply the paint. When there is only a little paint left on the blade, rub this lightly across the canvas to give a light and speckled texture. Try changing the shape of your knife to give a different approach.

Step 10

1 Using a chisel-shaped knife, apply a generous stipple of paint to the end of the blade and repeat the techniques to emulate the individual flower heads in the foreground. Painting the flower heads with this technique will give you a different shape each time.

2 Try using the tip of a trowel-shaped blade to paint small shapes and marks and drag the tip of a blade through some of the foreground flower heads to produce stems.

3 Be aware of your flower placement in the foreground; your brain may try to organise the marks for you by placing them all equal distances apart in a pattern and create them of equal size. Hopefully some of the techniques described in this article will help you to paint more randomly, without allowing your brain to become involved too much.

Churchill, oil on canvas, 47½x71in. (120x180cm). This was a huge painting commission for a long-time resident of Churchill, in Worcestershire. My secret to achieving the golden evening sunlight was to use Indian yellow when mixing my greens. The foreground grasses were painted using the edges of large pieces of cardboard.

Henry, oil on canvas, 17½x39½in. (70x100cm). Henry was a commission for my subject’s parents, Rachel and Matt. The inclusion of the cow is because Henry is a big fan of cows, and the same for the hay bales. His sister’s middle name is violet, which explains their appearance, and the hosta is Rachel’s favourite plant. There are a few other sneaky surprises in the painting, but I’m not going to give away all its secrets.

Bluebells at Shrawley Woods, oil on canvas, 11¾x17¾in. (35x45cm). Here is an alla prima painting for one of my online tutorials. Bold contrasts and lots of foreground palette-knife work were key to the success of this painting.

Rapeseed Field, Kinver, oil on canvas board, 10x11¾in. (25x30cm). This was painted en plein air in May 2020.

Late Sunlight Breaking Through the Trees, oil on canvas, 11¾x15¾in. (30x40cm). This was painted alla prima for one of my online tutorials, demonstrating evening sunlight and shadows. Above right Looking East from Titterstone Clee Hill, oil on canvas, 8x19¾in. (20x50cm). This was painted en plein air high up on Titterstone Clee hill, looking east. High winds and rain showers made painting a little adventurous; thank goodness I packed my guy ropes! Poppy Fields near Kinver, oil on canvas board, 10x11¾in. (25x30cm). This was painted en plein air in glorious weather conditions. Bright fresh sunlight and bold palette-knife work brought this painting to life.