Here's a series of plein air landscape paintings I made of the River Thames near Twickenham during May this year. ![]() It was a hazy morning with the sun just breaking through slightly. I hadn't tried painting in this kind of light before but I really enjoyed the tranquil atmosphere. The water at low tide was completely motionless allowing beautiful reflections to form. Twickenham Riverside, Hazy Morning 10x8" Oil on panel Available from Chelsea Art Society open exhibition 2019 ![]() This painting was completed soon afterwards, this time I stood on the bank of the Thames near Marble Hill Park and looked towards Richmond Hill. Again the day was slightly overcast, giving a peaceful feel to the river, with just a slight breeze ruffling the surface of the water. ![]() This third plein air landscape was completed at Twickenham Riverside, in very different weather conditions - this time there was a stiff breeze rippling the surface of the water and tiny white clouds moving quickly across the sky.
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Oil painting on panel 5x7". Available from Newbloodart online gallery
If you're already following me on Instagram then you may have seen this painting there, which I painted back in March. I was fooled by looking out at the strong sunshine into thinking it would be warm, but there was a bitter easterly breeze which really froze my fingers by the end of it.
Last time I painted this subject in Orleans House Woods, was in January, and I was painting with the sun behind me. I opted to paint into the sun this time as I loved the light streaming through the green foliage on the ground. Now - surely you can't paint spring without a fair amount of bright green, I actually went crazy and used a bit of pthalo green for this painting (for those of you who haven't used it it's a scarily highly pigmented green which can easily contaminate all your colours if you leave just a tiny bit on your brush!). Painting trees is time consuming, and I ran out of time to complete this outdoors, so finished off the left hand trees at home from memory. Oil painting on panel 5x7" I wanted to make the most of the last day of sunny weather by getting outdoors, and I'm glad I did as the light by the river was incredible. Signs of spring such as catkins on the trees are transforming the view. The last time I painted here it was frosty - this morning there was a lot of dew which gave a similar effect. I’m not sure if it’s the increasing strength of the sunlight, or that I’m beginning to see a little differently with practice, but there seems to be a lot more blue in the shadows at the moment. It’s most noticeable when looking back at the scene after looking away for a little while. After half a second looking at the view the colours appear much greyer as my eyes adjust. But it seems to me that getting some of this initial impression of colour into the painting is important in establishing the light effect. I think I could have pushed the chroma of the blue in the distance up a little higher than I did to enhance this. It’s something I’ll play around with in future. Oil painting on panel 5x7" Another bright frosty morning had me setting up my easel by the banks of the river Thames again. This group of trees is becoming a recurring motif in my paintings. You can find it in Orleans Gardens, looking over towards the Ham side of the river.
There was a lot of haze in the air which really increased the atmospheric perspective. Its only a couple of weeks since the last frosty painting but the light seems very different already as the sun is now higher and the light stronger. Maybe because of the smaller panel size, I didn't feel in such a rush this morning. I remembered to step back and consider the overall effect a lot more. I've been thinking about how to create colour harmony and researching this in Edgar Payne's book, Composition of Outdoor painting. I used a lot of blue and yellow today, it seems to tie the piece together quite well. Original oil painting on mdf panel 8x8" I was torn this morning between painting the daffodils again as they had opened, or heading outside to paint the heavy frost, but it was such a beautiful morning it seemed a waste to spend it painting indoors so I quickly packed up and walked down to Orleans Gardens.
Painting the frost was the hardest thing yet - squinting into that bright sunlight as it bounced of the ground was almost impossible. I found it difficult to judge the relationships between the values. Also I didn't reserve enough space for the white on my palette and it became hard to find any clean white to add the highlights. This meant I had to finish the painting off at home, but at least I remembered to put in the tree shadows at the start this time, so I've made some progress! I feel like the value relationships could do with a bit of adjustment, perhaps the greens in the foreground could be darker? Maybe Ill experiment with some glazes once its dry. I hope for some more frosty days to come so I can do some more studies outside. And I'm keeping my fingers crossed for snow tomorrow : ) Original oil painting on mdf panel 8x8" This is the first day I haven't quite managed to finish my painting. Its the largest panel I've attempted yet and it seems those extra few square inches were too much to cover in the hour long session I had this morning. Or maybe I was painting a little more slowly and carefully today as I tried to get the subtle changes in tone in the distant bank and trees. Either way I'll have to decide whether to take the painting out again and try to finish it on location - which would be a new experience for me- or to make up the foreground from memory and photo reference.
Original oil painting on mdf panel 9x6" There was still a slight frost on the grass when I got down the river this morning, the air was very cold and the river still enough to allow some beautiful reflections to form. I was absolutely frozen by the time I had finished. In spite of this I'm really hoping it snows soon - I will be ridiculously excited - I love snowy paintings and would love to have a go. Getting out to paint is making me really enjoy January - it has always seemed like such a dreary month but the subtle colours and light are great for painting.
Original oil painting on mdf panel 9x6" Having a go at painting the russet apples on the 8x6" the other day gave me the courage to try out a 9x6" panel outdoors. It is still a relatively small painting but I felt much more conspicuous and also unsure if I could pull it off. Could I cover a board this size in an hour? Had I bitten off more than I could chew with all those foreground trees? In fact I think it turned out pretty well (unless it turns out to be one of those I like at first and then gradually realise is not so great!). I think this was due in part to the weather being kind to me - the sky remained clear the whole time. I'm feeling confident to try another tomorrow if the weather allows.
To get the painting home in one piece I tried a tip using a wine cork that I found here on Marc Dalessio's blog. It worked a treat, and perhaps because I only had a ten minute walk home there was no smudging at all where the corks had been. And after squinting into the sun for a whole hour, tomorrow I will definitely try to find a cap to wear! Original oil painting on primed card 6x4" I've made it to two weeks. I'll be honest, the last two days before this one were a struggle. The only time I could find to paint was after the kids had gone to bed - and I was pretty exhausted. I think that shows in yesterday's painting of a russet apple in particular - I made a mistake with the drawing which I'm itching to go back and fix. Maybe I can squeeze that in tomorrow.
Today I took advantage of the sunny morning and headed down to the river Thames, not far from where I did my last plein air painting. Looking across the river towards Ham (Ham House is just to the left of this scene) the sun was not long risen, and dazzlingly bright. I hope I've managed to capture a sense of that in my painting. I'm not especially pleased with the composition - I think I need to walk a bit further along the river to get to a bend so that the opposite bank doesn't make a horizontal line across the picture. I'm a bit of a newcomer to plein air painting, but I have to say I've enjoyed every minute so far. Its been my dream for many many years to paint landscapes straight from life so I'm really happy that I'm finally managing to do it -although I've still got a lot to learn. I've been following Marc Dalessio's blog for a a long time, and have picked up some great tips from there and his youtube channel where he very generously shares videos of some of his demonstrations. Also, I highly recommend the book 'Carlson's Guide to Landscape Painting' to anyone wanting to give this type of painting a go. oil on primed card 5x4" Making the most of the clear weather I got down to the river Thames today and produced this plein air study. I'd forgotten how hard it is trying to pin down values in changing light conditions. I love the challenge though- got to get out and do some more soon.
I painted this from the steps near Orleans Gardens, Twickenham, looking over to the Ham side of the river. |
About meI am a realist painter, working in oils, painting landscape and still life. Archives
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