78 May 2020 http://www.painters-online.co.ukPaintersOnline editor’s choice
Meet this month’s editor’s choice winner from our PaintersOnline gallery
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M
artin Singer trained at York
School of Art, Nottingham
Trent University and Bretton
Hall College, Wakefield.
The starting point for this painting was a
photograph he took in the spring. ‘Nothing
beats painting outside for developing and
improving observational skills,’ he says,
‘but the convenience of a photograph can
be extremely useful in capturing a fleeting
moment. Long Lane in North Yorkshire
is a quiet B-road between Borrowby and
Northallerton. It runs along a straight ridge
with marvellous views either side over
farmland and woods. I began by stapling
the four corners of a sheet of Saunders
Waterford 300lb NOT paper to a woodenboard, covering the staples and edge
with masking tape. I then gave the paper
a coat of white gesso to slow down the
absorption rate of the acrylics. Once this
was dry I used a 2B pencil to sketch in the
main structural elements – the horizon
line, perspective of the road, shape of the
hawthorn tree and position of the cyclist.
This took around 20 minutes. I started
painting in the sky, using a 50mm flat
brush loaded with white and ultramarine.
I use Pip Seymour acrylics in a limited
palette of white, ultramarine, yellow
ochre, cadmium yellow and burnt umber,
which I find produces a more harmonious
composition. My brushes are mainly
flats (50mm, 35mm and 20mm), plus aMartin Singer Long Lane Cyclist, acrylic on watercolour paper, 22½ 3 30in (57 3 76cm)Da Vinci green-handled Student brush
and a nylon rigger for detail. White and
yellow ochre were used for the warm light
on the right of the sky, before painting in
the distant fields and horizon line using
the sky colours to create tonal recession
and depth. The same combination of
colours were used for the middle ground
and foreground, adding cadmium yellow
and burnt umber for more saturation of
pigment. I finished with a rigger to suggest
the details of the cow parsley, hawthorn
blossom and highlights on the cyclist.’
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