First up today is the larger half sheet painting based on the smaller study that I shared last week:
This is my second half imperial sized painting in recent weeks and it does feel really good to be painting at a larger scale again.
I think over the past 18 months or so when I’ve mainly painted on quarter imperial size sheets of paper, I’ve become more disciplined about simplifying scenes and editing out details that don’t really contribute to the final painting.
Working larger, I’m aware of trying to maintain this discipline when the temptation, when there’s more space to work with, is to clutter it with unnecessary information. You can seen below the finished ‘larger version’ alongside the study that I did for this painting that I shared last week.
half sheet second painting 
quarter sheet preparatory study
While I think the larger painting is a more complete and resolved painting – I can’t help feeling a little disappointed with it too! I do like how the background buildings turned out but, considering how much longer it took me to paint this compared to the original study – I think I was hoping for a more commensurate improvement in how I would feel about the larger painting! As it is, I am pleased with it, and perhaps I was expecting far too much to also have been hoping for a ‘eureka’ moment too!
Divine Light
I think I also mentioned in last week’s post that I was waiting on permission to share another painting that I’ve done recently. Well I’m delighted that permission for forthcoming and would like to thank St John Baptists Church in Hove for their approval.
The church has already featured in a number of my paintings, but usually as a silhouette in the background. It’s only a few hundred metres from where I live, situated at one end Palmeira Square in Hove:
Palmeira Square, Hove 
Palmeira Square, Hove
These paintings lead me to explore a little further, beginning first with the Church’s website, and then its Instagram account. It was on instagram that I came across an image that seemed to scream out to me “Paint Me!”
Here’s how I got on:
I really had to persevere with this painting. At one point, I ended up totally drenching the paper and trying to remove as much of the paint as possible, before letting it dry out completely so I could start all over again!
After such an inauspicious start, I was actually pretty pleased with how this eventually turned out!
7 thoughts on “‘Divine Light’ watercolour painting”
Nice
Thanks so much for this, so please you like it!
Your welcome
Really nice paintings John and I especially love your reds of the church interior. Do I see a hint of Alvaro with the red?! I’m having to use my phone to respond abd . my ipad has only allowed one tiny line…most odd., so may be errors! Anyhow do try for even larger. I’m more comfortable with smaller paintings too but you seem to be handling it well.
Hi Carole and thanks for this and so pleased you like the church interior. I agree that the strong saturated red is Alvaro-esque but my use of it was driven more by the original reference image than anything else. I was however pleased that I’d done that recent ‘interiors’ workshop with Alvaro because I did find it helpful (especially conquering the fear of using so much intense red!) when it came to painting this one! I’m also going to try to start mixing up my sizes again so I am intended to do more half sheets (and maybe – just for fun/the challenge – the odd full sheet!)
Very nice indeed of the Church interior,terrific light and makes you feel you are there
I like the big painting too
Always a challenge starting a large painting ,that big white sheet staring back at me!
Great stuff
Brian
Hi Brian and thanks so much for such kind and supportive comments! I think I’m generally ok at painting half sheet but I was recently encouraged to paint something full sheet I could actually feel the colour drain out of my face at the prospect! That said, I really would love to try painting something big one day.