DEMONSTRATION

Reflections, Whitby Harbour

The location is the beautiful coastal town of Whitby where I lived for over 30 years.

This demonstration was developed from a pastel painting I did many years ago. Occasionally, I have painted a few of my previous works in a different medium, which can give a completely different feel to the subject. I’m not sure that’s true in this instance, however I feel that the subject matter suited the medium of gouache perfectly. For the pastel painting shown here I decided to paint it on a black ground, which works well against the blocks of colour.

Final evaluation

Before deciding that any painting is complete I always take time for evaluation, asking myself some of the following questions: Does the composition work? A successful painting should have a balance of tone and colour, together with an effective focal point. In this instance I felt that the tone and colour balance was correct. With regard to the focal point,

I didn’t feel that the painting satisfied this criteria, but thought that it was still acceptable. The second question is: Do the edges work? Too many hard edges scattered around the painting can destroy balance and focus and normally it is something that I’m always critical of. However, in this case I decided to ignore my usual attention to edges and instead aim for a more graphic feel to the work.

Moving water

Painting water in all its forms is a challenge. However, by studying, and hopefully capturing the fluidity of moving water, you will be rewarded by the feeling of movement in your work. Water that is slightly broken by wind action or, at the other extreme, by turbulent wave forms, conforms to the same rules as still water with regard to reflections. However, the constantly changing, horizontal planes of the water produce broken, disturbed reflections. These reflections not only partially reflect the objects above the water’s surface as previously discussed, but also the sky. The numerous planes and varying degrees of reflection in disturbed water will respond to other factors, often bouncing light back from the seabed below, creating further nuances of tone, shape and colour for consideration.

Next month: Robert will demonstrate how to capture boats and harbours in gouache