WAT ERCOLOUR – PL E IN-AIR AGAINS T THE ODDS: 2ND OF 4
Brompton Oratory Dome, watercolour on Arches Rough, 111⁄2×8in (29×20.5cm).
Last month found me abandoning a painting because I was out in the full sun, dazzled by the white paper, and I said that I went in search of another location in the shade (The Artist summer 2018 issue). This was what I saw from the place I found. I could see that this was really all going to be about the drawing, and from the outset I decided to treat it this way, not as a ‘finished’ painting but more like a line and wash sketch. I started out with the best of intentions doing a fairly detailed pencil drawing, but as usual impatience intervened after a while and I then put in the sky washes very broadly, together with the mid-tones of the stonework. Then I regained a bit of selfdiscipline and picked up a pen. There was a lot of this work to do before adding some final washes and then leaving it ‘unfinished’