‘ Spring Garden’ – Oil Painting Demo

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This oil painting was for a demonstration for Exmouth Art Group & Sidmouth Art Society. It is of an arched gateway leading into a ‘Spring Garden’.

Here’s a list of the materials I used:
Brushes:
30 x 40 cm canvas board,
Flat Hog Bristle Size 2 & 5,
Round oil brushes 1 & 2,
Rigger Size 1,
Paint:
Winsor & Newton, Artists’ oil paints
Lemon Yellow,
Cadmium Orange,
Cadmium Red,
Raw Sienna,
Burnt Sienna,
Tierre Verte,
Viridian,
French Ultramarine,
Winsor Violet,
Blue Black,
Titanium White,
Michael Harding oil paints:
Unbleached Titanium Dioxide,
Yellow Ochre
Kings Blue Light,
Also:
Artist’s White Spirit,
Liquin Original.

I had two hours to complete the painting and started with a loose sketch in coloured pencil. On top of this, I layed a dark blue/purpley black wash, that was thinned down with white spirit. Then using the side of the size 2 flat brush I started to build up the foliage around the archway. I decided to work up the foreground first, before adding the garden inside the gateway. This way I knew how much to ‘knock back’ the colours of the flowers etc. as they receded into the garden.

All seemed to go well (apart from my head that kept getting in the way). I was pretty pleased with the resulting picture.

The Original reference photo which I used for the demonstration. I dropped the view point slightly, which I found more pleasing. Also, opening the gate to lead the eye into the garden.