Christine with some of her previous work

Preparation

Christine had prepared a sketch beforehand of a scene from Mytholmroyd. She had also masked out certain areas: the window frames, chimney, flowers and edge of banking. She started by wetting the top part of the paper and painting in the sky with a mix of ultramarine and a touch of Bt. Sienna, painting straight across the masked out chimney.

Next, she used a ball of tissue to roll across the sky to take out some clouds.
The hills were painted with a bluey/green colour light wash. Christine stressed that it was important to keep these pale as they will then give the impression of being far distant.
Christine then painted the windows using a mix of ultramarine and Bt.Umber, after painting dab each window with a tissue to lift out a small area and this creates a reflection impression.

The roofs were painted the same grey colour as the windows. Use a green shade to start the top edge of the roof and blend down with the grey.
Whilst wet, lift out a little on the roof here and there. Christine explained that using the same colour palette throughout the painting creates harmony.
The background colour on the buildings is a max of Raw Sienna with a touch of Ultramarine and a touch of Bt. Sienna – this gives a subdued yellow colour. As this is painted onto dry paper it is important to keep a wet edge otherwise you get hard lines in your painting.

Cut in to paint the trees. As the light is coming from the left the lighter tones of green are on the left edges. Make them feathery on edges and more solid in middle. Christine used an old small brush and a stippling technique for the trees. Allow some areas to blend. Once the trees are painted this pushes back the buildings in the painting.
Add burnt umber to the window colour and use this to touch in some stonework. Have a variety of hard edged stones and allow some to blend – soften the edges. Don't put in every stone, just here and there. Put some stones in around the windows.

Put a few lines on the roof to indicate roof tiles. Paint a darker line for the guttering and for the drainpipe. Put in some shadow under the at the side of the windows, and use the darker tone to paint some darker stones onto the buildings.

The bridge and wall are painted the same background colour as the buildings.
The water is a mix of Ultramarine and Bt. Sienna (same colour as sky). Using a round brush Christine worked quickly with horizontal strokes to create the water.

The path was painted with a variation of earth colours in her palette.

Under the bridge is painted with a mix of Alizarin Crimson and Viridian. Use the same colour for the reflection – this disappears off into a few ripples.
Use same colour for the banking edge. The wall is painted with a variety of soft and hard edges, vary the colours.
The shadows on the walls are painted with a mix of Ultramarine and Light Red.
The 3 greens are used for the hedging and grass areas. Light green: Aurolin and ultramarine, Medium green: New Gamboge and Ultramarine and dark green is New Gamboge and Ultramarine with a touch of Paynes Grey. Use some Burnt Umber on the grass edges.

Christine has used a bit of artistic licence to paint the buildings quite pale, in reality they were much darker. After rubbing off the masking fluid Christine painted the chimney and put shadow on one side, she also put some shading on the path.

Christine emphasised that with the water reflections it is important to have all your paints mixed ready and be able to work quickly. She said that reflections are supposed to be darker but she paints them the same tones. Wet the area for the reflections and using a flat brush paint downward strokes. Use different tones of green. Soften the edges horizontally into the water. Let one layer dry before darkening the reflections.

Add on coping stones to the wall and pick out some stones in wall. After taking off the masking fluid from edge of banking paint the area a light brown and shade in some stones.

For contrast, Christine added some red flowers, previously which had been masked out. This creates impact and uses opposite colours – red/green.

On behalf of members Amy gave the vote of thanks to Christine Gerard for her excellent demonstration.

The finished demonstration piece. Copyright Christine Gerard.