A request for a painting by a work colleague has resulted in a strange painting. She sent me some atmospheric photos of the tower and the poppies at night. I’ve never painted night time before and these very emotive pictures were always going to be a challenge. I didn’t want to lose the strong contrasts and the distance on the battlements and felt there wouldn’t be too much detail required – I as wrong. However, it was a study mainly of colours and contrast and this meant more time painting than normal.

The question I had was – paint in light washes or get the mop out and use almost pure pigment.  In the end the pure number of washes to achieve the density meant I went for saturation. Photo quality is bad but this picture does give a feel for the outcome.

Poppies at the Tower

Not quite my cup-of-tea, reminds me of a Daliesque hades.