The Artist - UK (2019-12)

26 artistDecember 2019 http://www.painters-online.co.uk

WATERCOLOUR

Enjoy success with

interior scenes

Amanda Hyatt shows how to simplify interior subjects and shares her top ten

tips as she demonstrates how to paint an interior scene in watercolour

M

y Five Steps to Watercolour

can be applied to any

subject. As a tonal

impressionist my work

is based on a reduced palette,

emphasising light rather than colour.

This method can also be applied to

painting interiors, which are all about

the light source, whether it’s a window,

on a wall or overhead and the light

subsequently cast through it, or light

cast by candles, fireplaces or lamps.

Paintings of interiors will have very

dark tones because the sun or other

light source must be brought into the

painting.

The ive steps

My first step, composition, is most

important in laying down the base

work for the painting. Colour choice in

the second step can then be what you

choose and does not have to be the

same as what is in front of you. In the

third step the painting is built up in

tones. These are different thicknesses

of paint, not different colours, although

a darker colour like burnt umber can be

painted over raw umber to give a darker

tone. This is the traditional method

of building tone but I practise mixing

the paint correctly the first time on the

palette to get just the right paint-plus-

water ratio and then apply paint to the

paper in a confident brushstroke with

minimum deliberation and correction.

This is called alla prima painting. My

fourth step is to give the painting a

sense of magic, time and light by using

shadow washes or high contrast darks

and lights. The last – fifth – step is

to pull it all together with the added

details of your choice.

Selection process

Interiors are no different to paint than

landscapes because similar intellectual

thoughts and analysis should happen

before and during the painting process.

Questions such as: ‘do I need that

chair there or are all the items on the

mantelpiece necessary?’ are just like

deciding not to paint every tree in a

landscape.

A painting of an interior is challenging

in that it is architectural and the

perspective and dimensions need

to be as accurate as possible for my

style of art which is traditional, realist,

tonal, impressionism compared with

say, Van Gogh’s bedroom interior

painting at Arles, which places his

painting in an expressionist genre. He

deliberately stayed away from correct

perspective and painted what he saw,

not necessarily in relationship to the

boundaries, angles and limitations

of the room. He also painted the

individual items in the room relatively

separate from each other and ignored

light and shadows, with no light at

all coming through the only window.

There are no shadows under the bed

or chairs or table. He relied on colour

alone to do the work and this is a

perfectly acceptable and clever method

of presenting a painting. This ‘free

fall painting based on colour without

correctness nor directional light’ is

not what we are discussing here but is

another totally different and unique

style.

Ainity

The artist should feel an affinity

with the subject, whatever it is. My

demonstration painting on pages 28-29

is of the smoking room of Martindale

Hall in Mintaro, north of Adelaide, near

the Flinders Ranges in South Australia

p Inside the British Natural History Museum, watercolour on Saunders CP Not 140lb (300gsm),

3943 474in (100 3 120cm)