Buildings are strict geometrical structures, so it often follows that we try our best to emulate exactly that. The trouble is, when you put one brushstroke wrong, suddenly the painting looks wrong. My approach to painting buildings is to work loose and not worry about those perfectly straight lines and square windows. The only thing that needs to be correct is the perspective and even then, it isn’t essential to be 100 per cent accurate – just make sure the lines are going roughly in the right direction.
I drew out the scene, placing the shapes where they needed to be. My main focus with the building was to ensure the perspective lines were going in the right direction. Before starting to paint I made sure I knew where I wanted to place the lightest values, which in this case were to be on the gable end of the cottages, chimney stacks, the small extension, garden wall, field and boundary walls. With those in mind I was better prepared to put the right colours in the right places. I mixed fluid colours on the surface, roughly placing the shapes but allowing them to bleed and blend.
When the starting washes had dried, I set about adding the darker shadow areas to give the painting structure and light. By concentrating on the colours and values and less on the accurate shapes and straight lines, I was able to achieve a loose feel to the building. Notice how I painted straight through the windows. This enabled me to achieve nice flowing washes of colour without having to work carefully around tight square shapes before moving on to the other mid-values of the painting.