Leisure Painter Award

Richard G Green St. Martin’s Church, Cwmyoy, watercolour, 24½x30¾in. (62x78cm). Richard is a selftaught artist, based in Preston, Lancashire. His main interest is in capturing the landscape in watercolour. He says:

‘St Martin’s church should be featured in Ripley’s Believe It or Not as it is a marvel that it’s still standing. It is the UK’s leaning tower of Pisa, having been saved from imminent collapse by flying buttresses. I just had to paint it.

‘After working out the composition with a tonal sketch and colour study, I mapped out the main shapes of the church and gravestones on 140lb cotton rag paper. Using a complementary colour palette of yellow ochre, cadmium orange and phthalo blue, I laid the first washes using a large mop brush. When the first wash was completely dry, I painted the left-hand side of the church with a mix of yellow ochre and cadmium orange, picking out the detail of the buttresses by leaving the original wash untouched.

‘Whilst this wash was still damp, I painted the roofs, shadows and shadow sides of the church with varying mixes of phthalo blue, alizarin crimson and burnt sienna. I used a stiffer mix of these colours for the gutter edges and windows in the shadow sides, allowing the paint to fuse and give a soft edge to them.

‘I then used a wash of sap green and cadmium orange for the grass and painted around the shape of the gravestones with the same mix. A touch of phthalo blue was used for the tree behind the church and shadows on the grass. I then mixed the colours that were left in the palette to make a grey-green for the gravestones. Finally, using a dark mix I added the detail on the windows and scumbled thin paint on the sunlit wall to indicate the texture of the wall.’