'Green Cottage'

This is another very recent painting, and one with which I encountered a few struggles.
It is a fairly loose interpretation of a cottage located within my village.
My first problem involved getting a view of the whole of the building. There seemed to be always at least one vehicle parked right outside the front. Eventually i collected a series of photographs, which enabled me to piece together the layout.
The next problem was one of season. My decision to paint this subject was taken in the middle of winter, when all the trees were bare, and the Wisteria on the front of the cottage itself had been severely pruned back. Thus some imagination was needed.
Of course, without a proper reference from which to work, I had no way to judge relative values of tone and colour temperature. I was forced to set the two main trees as a datum reference, and try to balance everything against them. This was not as easy as one would imagine, and resulted in my having to rework some areas to create the correct spacial perspective. I also had to employ a level of artistic licence in my description of the foreground, replacing a busy road and a narrow stretch of flat, closely manicured grass by inventing the footpath and gradients.
Anyway, this is the result of my labours, together with a couple of detail photographs, which hopefully will illustrate the technique employed.

Green Cottage (24x20") Acrylics painted on canvas.


detail pic.1 (click to enlarge)


detail pic.2 (click to enlarge)

'Composition #1'

Although my work often deviates considerably away from reality, it is very rare that I paint something that is totally abstract.
This is one such creation, and is titled 'Composition #1'


Composition #1 (10x7") Watercolour on Bockingford w/c paper