Thames Wood

Thames Wood ~ original watercolour
© Teresa Newham

Like so many paintings, this one started with a photograph - or rather, the series of photographs taken on our walk in search of bluebells back in April. I was keen to get something down on paper before the memories faded!

one of the photos which inspired the painting
© Teresa Newham

Last year I attempted to portray the bluebells of Thames Wood in acrylic - not my favourite medium, as regular readers of this blog will know - and while the results were certainly vibrant the effect wasn't as subtle as it might have been:

last year's acrylics on a similar theme
© Teresa Newham

So this time I decided to use watercolours.  Aware that recently I've been using the same colour palette over and over again, I opted for Raw Sienna and Cobalt Blue - a couple of old favourites which I'd once used to paint an entire picture (Swan) to good effect.  To those I added Burnt Umber, which I haven't used for ages, and Cobalt Green (yellow shade) which a generous neighbour who used to work for Windsor & Newton gave me a while back, and which I'd never got round to using at all.

early washes
© Teresa Newham

As masking fluid and I don't get on, I left the main tree trunks unpainted and washed in the background around them, trying to achieve a sense of distance.   Once I'd painted the foreground I took a black-and-white photo of the painting to check the range of tones:

photographed in black and white
© Teresa Newham

Thames Wood is a magical place, and I keep being drawn back there, so I may well return to this subject again.  Who knows, by the time I do, perhaps the weather will be good enough for a spot of plein air painting!

the finished painting
© Teresa Newham