In August I visited a grand stately home and its gardens in Kent, Godinton House near Ashford, that I had never heard of until two days before I visited and I fell in love with the gardens and took loads of photos whilst I was there as I knew I would want to paint various aspects of it as soon as I could, particularly the Italianate garden, I’ve shown the photo here that I found so inspiring – it has trees, shrubs, flowers, a brick building, stonework, a bench, a fountain and a rill filled with water.
I knew this painting was for me, and had a look through my stock of frames to see if I had one that was appropriate, and was delighted that I had one that was perfect, it was dark mottled green, with a pale green mount. Its always easier to paint a picture if I already have a frame as I can change any aspects to fit the size as I plan it. I also had a very strong feeling that although the photograph I was working from was vertical, the picture should be horizontal as I felt the garden looked better that way, and would be about wanting to go and sit on the bench at the end of the raised part of the garden, rather than the rill which the vertical photograph was focusing on.
I only worked from this one photograph for my painting, although I knew I wanted to slightly adjust the vertical line between the fountain, the statue, and the round stone ball on the wall behind, so I used artistic licence to slightly move the statue and round stone ball for my painting. I also wanted to have less sky above the garden, and have the tree behind the tiled roof of the old brick building more dense as that would make the roof of the building stand out more. Plus the far tree on the right hand side had to be more dense too so that you looked properly at the garden and not the sky beyond as its so pale.
What also mattered a lot was getting the perspective of the rill in the picture, as it had straight edges and was the main focal point leading into the painting.
When I was happy that my drawing was correct on the paper I was working on, I then started blocking in the colour using acrylic paint, which I love using.
I used the same colours throughout my painting, white, cadmium yellow, light hansa yellow, yellow ochre, burnt sienna, pink, pale turquoise, cobalt blue, ultramarine blue, and only a touch of cadmium red. I didn’t use black at all…to create black I used burnt sienna and ultramarine blue mixed together as they make a softer black for landscapes and using the same colours throughout makes the whole painting more harmonious.
I painted the sky first, then the darker trees at the back of the garden, and the paler trees between them.
Then I painted the brick building on the left hand side with the old tiled roof, I also made the doorway darker than in the photograph as that made the plants infront of it stand out more. When I was happy with the plants and shrubs infront of the building I then painted garden at the back with the statue, stone ball of the wall behind, the loggia with the red climbing shrubs over it, and the bench infront.
I then painted the trees and flowers on the right hand side with the wispy tamarisk and purple and blue plants below.
Then I painted the grass which had to look like a finely cut lawn, and not a carpet, so it was quite difficult to capture that as a sunlit lawn with shadows below.
When I was happy with that I then painted the four rounded shrubs, as they all needed to be the same colours and showing that they were foliage.
Then I painted the fountain of water in the middle of the pond, as it had to have black shadows to make it stand out, but the white of water at the top (slightly more exaggerated than the photo as its not so obvious that its a fountain of water) and with the glint of water as it trickles down the slightly mossy fountain was also quite difficult to capture.
When I was happy with that the only thing to paint was the most difficult part of the painting, the rill, with the stone sides, and water, and water lillies in the middle by the fountain, the reflections and the pond weed in the foreground, and the shadows below, water is always difficult to paint, which is why I love the challenge of it so much.
I am absolutely delighted with this painting. I have painted everything I love in a garden, trees, shrubs, flowers, brickwork, stonework, a bench, a fountain, and a rill filled with water. But in my painting, I have made the image horizontal, so that makes you want to go and sit on that bench.
This painting I have painted for me, its called ‘Godinton garden’, (19.5 x 14 inches) its painted in acrylics on paper and I love it !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
