Kitchen light – watercolour

I was in touch with some friends over Christmas. They were celebrating the fact that their kitchen, which had been undergoing a total renovation – the type where you knock walls down and move the kitchen from where it was to somewhere entirely new – was sufficiently complete that they could start to use it over the festive period.

I asked to see a picture of the new kitchen. The picture I received immediately struck me as a challenge that that I’d like to try to paint one day. On the back of last week’s foray into painting an interior, I felt encouraged to have a go. Here’s how I got on:

This was definitely more about the challenge of trying to capture something of the scene and the play of light than trying to create a ‘beautiful painting’.

Overall, I think it reads ok. Hopefully anyone looking at this will be able to tell it’s a kitchen!

I quite like the movement of the light across the kitchen cupboards on the left, and the reflections and sense of bits and bobs on the central island. I would have liked to have arrived at this conclusion quicker than I did! I found it difficult to judge some of the tones, especially the difference between the tone of my wet paint compared to when it was dry. It was often so much lighter than I wanted it be that I had to apply additional washes – with each wash increasing the likelihood of a dull and muddy painting.

It’s not one that I’m exactly bowled over by but, finished painting aside, I also take some comfort from the original drawing. The proportions, perspective and the simplification of elements from the original photograph etc that underpin the painting are all relatively sound. These are so often the elements that I find can trip you up, especially with this kind of interior view.

Painting this, and looking at it again now as I write, makes me realise just how much I’d love to visit my friends and to be able to share and enjoy their company. And, and of course, their new kitchen!