The Artist - UK (2021-04)

http://www.painters-online.co.uk artistApril 2021 45

PRACTICAL

t STAGE SIX

Continuing to develop the texture and

grasses throughout the painting, I introduced

the first poppies with mixes of primary red,

spectrum red, alizarin crimson, a touch of

yellow ochre and white. I then painted the

sky using very loose brushmarks. For the top

of the sky I used white and ultramarine blue;

in the centre I used white, primary blue and

a touch of alizarin crimson and, keeping it

extremely light near the horizon, I used white,

yellow ochre and a touch of alizarin crimson

q FINISHED PAINTING

Poppies near Windrush, the Cotswolds, gouache, 113/4 3 153/4in (30 3 40cm).

To finish I continued to paint the poppies as before, being careful to paint large poppies in the

foreground, reducing the size as I moved further into the painting, indicating drifts of poppies in

the distance.

The positioning of flowers can be a bit tricky as they can look too ‘placed’ and unrealistic. I use

what I call a ‘random dotting’ technique where I squint, almost shutting my eyes, then dot them

in at speed without placing them with any care. It’s important that many of the foreground

poppies overlapped naturally as too many separate flower heads wouldn’t look natural. Finally,

additional details to the fields and trees were added

Robert Brindley

is a member of the Royal Society

of Marine Artists. His book Painting

Landscapes in Oils is published by

Crowood Press (www.crowood.com) and

his four DVDs are available from Town

House Films

http://www.townhousefilms.co.uk

http://www.robertbrindley.com

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